


Cadi Astri

by everybodyknowsme



Category: Merlin (TV), Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-21
Updated: 2019-03-10
Packaged: 2019-05-09 18:26:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 25,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14721299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/everybodyknowsme/pseuds/everybodyknowsme
Summary: I’m in Rhino withdrawal so decided to (steal) let me be inspired be Cadentibus Astris. Will follow largley the same plot.





	1. Stars fall into the sea

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rhino](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rhino/gifts), [RhinoMouse](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RhinoMouse/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Cadentibus Astris](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12284304) by [Rhino (RhinoMouse)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RhinoMouse/pseuds/Rhino). 



> Please Comment, if my English or god forbid the Latin is wrong.

King Rodor worried about his wife. He hoped, that this birth would go well, but Mary’s health had been bad. Losing another child could break her.  
He paced up and down in his room, he had been informed after previous births, that walking up and down the hallway in front of Mary’s room was very much audible and stressed her even further.

It had been hours, when suddenly, one of the midwifes stormed in.  
“she ran away! She did not want us to tell you, she said she wanted to tell you herself, so we let her rest. We came to see after her and she was gone.”

Rodor was on his horse, together with a small group of his men. Following his wife’s trail was not hard, even as it was getting darker.

They were close to the seashore, when they caught up to her. She had evidently been crying, but now she was still, facing south.  
„Mary! Please come back with me”, the king begged.  
“Stars have fallen into the sea yesterday”, she said, staring into the darkness.  
“My lord, she must be delirious from the loss.”

Then there were sounds of fighting. Seconds later Rodor and his captain faced a large group of pirates.  
“Today must be my lucky day. First we fish two fae-children out of the water with their magical boats, and now I get a good old hostage nearly for free!”  
His men laughed.  
“Who are you old man? And who is that cutey over there? You look rich.”  
“I am king Rodor of Nemeth and this is my wife. You will release us unharmed and I shall pay you for the safe passage.”  
“You got the base idea right, but one crucial idea wrong: first I get paid, then you are released! Now I hope that guard of yours is loyal enough to return home without help.”  
The captain of the guard was disarmed and sent away to report.  
The king and his wife were brought onto the ship. Mary only struggled, when her captors didn’t allow her to look at the sea.  
Like the pirate-captain had said, they were not the only prisoners on the ship. There was a girl in strange clothing holding an infant. She seemed not the slightest bit worried about the chains on her arms or the fact, that she was on a pirate ship, but more curious about the newcomers. Other the her behavior and her clothes, nothing pointed to this girl or the baby being anything but human.  
King Rodor was growing confident that he and his wife would get out of this safely, until one of the pirates laid an eye on her.  
“She doesn’t look like she would object to a good fuck.”  
“Why don’t you go for the fae-girl?”  
“First: I’m not into kids, second I’m not crazy. She might curse my dick for generations if I try something.”  
The girl must have realized, that they spoke about her and began to talk. Rodor recognized her words as Latin. His skills in this language had suffered from lack of use, but he was sure, that he could hold a conversation with her if necessary.  
“Just don’t go to rough on her. She still has to pass as unharmed, when we return her.”

Rodor was pulled away from his wife, there was laughter, and then the girl spoke again:  
“finite!”  
It was loud and clear. Even the pirates understood, what she wanted. The commotion had wakened the baby and it had started crying.  
The laughter continued and somebody gripped Mary’s dress. She awakened from her stasis and started kicking and screaming.  
Suddenly the girl was behind the man, that wanted to rape Mary, the bay still in her arm.  
“Fini!”  
The pirate slapped her and turned back to Mary.  
Then he was gone. Where his body had been, was the girls fist. The sound of metal being torn rang out. The pieces of the chain, that was supposed to constrain the girl’s movement rained on the deck.  
Everybody stared at her.  
She looked around and settled on Mary: “Curitasne Kal? Curita Kal”, and she handed the baby to her.  
Then she turned back to the pirates. They had drawn their weapons, waiting for their captain, to call the attack.  
“Kill her!” That were his last words. Faster than Rodor could follow the girl ran around the deck, appearing in front of who ever appeared the most threatening. Withing seconds the entire crew was flung of into the sea.  
“non pugno tua.”  
“nec ego” the girl smiled, apparently amused about his language skills.  
She effortlessly ripped the remnants of the cuffs from her wrists and held her hands out to him, obviously offering to the same for him.  
She turned to Mary: “Valde gratias sum! Nunc navis noster acciere debeo.”  
With that she hopped of board. There was no splash. Instead she reappeared carrying a large metallic object, that vaguely resembled a tadpole. She was held with both hands, letting Rodor believe, she could somehow hold onto the pirate-ship with her feet. She was still dry except for water, that was dripping onto her from the thing and the rope, the pirates had used to fasten it to the ship.  
The wooden ship shook, when she set the metal one down on the deck, and she was gone again, to bring another one on board.  
From one of the vessels she retrieved a large piece of red fabric. The color was rich and the fabric was so fine, that Rodor could not make out a mesh at all. She took the baby back from again thanking Mary.  
“Kara Zor-El ex Krypton sum. Hic est Kal El ex Krypton. Exequimus domo novo.”  
Fae that wanted to looked for a home in the human world.  
“Sum regis Rodor. Ea est mea regina Mary. Nos servabas. Vos damare domo volo e gratias.”  
Provide a home to someone, that saved his life was the least he could do.  
“Quamobrem non cum vobis vivitisne?”  
“Krypton deletus est.”  
Their world had been destroyed, that explained a lot.  
“Qua rea Mary maeretne?”  
“Nobis infans mortuus est.”

Kara decided to bring the ship to the shores of Nemeth. Rodor did not want to know, how she did it, but she jumped of board and the ship jerked into motion like a pulled cart.  
In the short time it took her to bring them to land, Rodor thought about how he should fulfill his promise to her. He could just give her and her cousin a house in the capital, but she could obviously not speak English. Even if her neighbors treated her with trust, it would hardly feel like a home with every interaction being a struggle. No, he owed her more than that. They should live in his palace. There were more people, that understood Latin. And she would grow up with his own daughter.  
It was an obvious decision to make her his ward. Since there were no witnesses, he could easily pass her off as a merely extremely strong human. But what of her cousin? To keep his secret, he would need a reason, to keep the circle around him small. Besides he would need a nursing mother. Maybe Kara or the much more lively looking Mary, who again held Kal, could come up with something.  
The ship jerked again, as it hit land.

The solution to Kal’s problem was so obvious, that Kara had assumed, it had been Rodor’s plan, since he suggested taking her in as a ward: adopt him as his own son. He needed an heir, not many were aware, that Mary’s latest child had been a still-birth, Mary had already bonded with Kal and vice versa.

Before they had to find a way home, the captain of the royal guard found them. He had immediately brought reinforcements as soon as he had reached the closest city.  
They told him the official story: when he had left, Mary gave birth on the pirate-ship. Kara had been a french prisoner, who the pirates had planned to either keep or sell as a slave. When Kara had seen the infant Kal she started to fight against her captors with such fierceness, that she and Rodor eventually gained control of the ship. They then opened all sails, to maneuver back to shore. Because they closed them to late, the ship was now beached.  
One of the most important details, that they had changed was, that Kara was now a boy named Alexander, Kal El was now Karl. When she addressed him with his real name, they could blame it on his french pronunciation. They still had to come up with an excuse for her to respond better to Kara. Her being french also explained her last name being pronounced with a “Z” but her family sigil being an “S”.  
It was Mithian, who came up with a solution to the Kara-problem.  
“Dear means 'Cara' in Latin. If she addressed me or mum, that would always be the first word out of her mouth. Now it’s a nick-name she likes better, than her real one.”

Of course some still knew the truth. The Midwifes knew, that Mary had already lost her child, when she had left the castle. The guards, that had brought them back home, had seen a ship so far inland, that even on high tides it would remain completely dry. A few of the teachers could tell, that Kara’s accent was not french. And to keep the secret of her gender from all the servants and handmaidens was basically impossible.  
But by and large the kingdom rejoiced about the King’s ward Alex Sorl and his son Karl, prince of Nemeth.


	2. Threats

Lena did not like the dreams. They showed things, she was afraid of.  
The one today was different. Normally her visions had no real perspective. Her sight was just there.

Today she had a body. The body of a woman, older than herself.  
She wore strange clothing, made of a material she had never seen. Next to her was a middle-aged man. They were arrested by guards, definitely not Uther's men.  
Everything was extremely slow. Not like some people described, where she was unable to move quick, but instead, she was holding back to fit in.  
They spoke. It was weird to see the lips moving, before the sound came out.  
“Mordred, what are you doing here? I thought you were banished?”  
“I'm sure the lord and the lady will understand. I went to the opposite end of a different world, and look came for me”, the man, Mordred gestured at her.  
“You know the drill.” He had been arrested multiple times, banished and still expected to be trusted?  
Mordred spoke in a language she did not know, his eyes lighted up yellow and out of nowhere ropes appeared and tied his arms. Not only was he openly practicing witchcraft, but the guards were completely unfazed by his display.  
They started escorting him and her towards a small city.  
“You chose a bad time to show up. His”, the guard pointed to the tower, “grandson is due this week. You know how he gets, when his family grows.”  
Mordred laughed. “I still remember when Conner was born. He must have killed every bear, wolf and bandit in Albion before he would travel with him to Camelot.”

She was tackled. The attack was fast, not only by the dreams standards, but also her own.  
The force knocked her through a tree.  
That did not cause any pain.  
It was just a dream after all.  
Her attacker was a knight covered from head to toe in chain mail, plates were affixed to his chest, the outer side of his arms and his legs, his face was obscured by a full helmet.  
Her sight focused for a short moment on the head and her face showed surprise for a second.  
What did dream-her expect to see?  
The knight spoke.  
“What are you?”  
“I am Kryptonian.” Morgana had never heard that word, but the knight obviously had. He stepped closer.  
“You are to young. Krypton exploded 36 years ago.” A country could not explode. Especially not without it becoming a famous tale.  
“It is true. I was in the phantom-zone...” What ever the phantom-zone was, the knight was not expecting anything good coming from there.  
He only used his gloved hands, one to strike, one to hold her in place.  
These attacks hurt. He precisely targeted weak spots: the armpits, to prevent her from striking back, flat-handed hits at her ears, to disorient her, a punch with index and middle finger just below her ribs, to drive the air out of her lungs.  
Then an uppercut to her nose, to discourage future resistance.  
Dream-her tried to jump. Morgana was not surprised, that she managed, to rise about a dozen feet into the air, when something hit her in the back. She assumed it was a thrown dagger. It did not wound her, but it threw of her balance. The knight was above her, seemingly flying, a huge mace in hand. He drove it into her chest and the impact hammered her literally into the ground.  
She was in great pain, she could tell, she would die. The mace had broken a few of her ribs. That would be survivable, if she got help quickly. Since the knight was most likely the highest authority for miles around, that was almost impossible.  
He landed softly next to her, as if he was lowered by a crane. Then he swung the mace down and broke her hand.  
Only now he decided, to speak his mind: “You are not a child of Krypton, I killed the last three daughters of Krypton. Even if you speak the truth, that would make you a dangerous criminal. I will not risk the well-being of my family by letting you roam freely!”  
Her vision darkened.  
The knight lifted his mace.  
A raven landed on her forehead.  
The knight dropped his weapon and moved to take of his helmet.  
Seemingly out of nowhere a murder of ravens flew around her.  
Inside the flock was a human shape.  
A woman in a dark cloak, dream-her could barely see her, with the light fading from her eyes.  
The cloaked woman raised her hand and a light, brighter than a thousand suns washed the pain away. She could feel her bones shifting back into their right positions, her wounds closed.  
Her sight returned and the last thing she saw, before waking up covered in sweat and tears, was the knights face.  
She would never forget that face.

 

Twelve years later Uther wished, he didn't have to have this argument, but he knew it was inevitable. He had entered wedding negotiations with Nemeth to marry Morgana to Alexander; a ward for a ward was on paper an equal trade, but the man Rodor had raised as his son was legendary. If the bards were to be believed, he had single handedly repelled Saxon marauders and Odin's army. Ridiculous exaggerations, sure, but none the less there had to be a true core. After all, Rodor had taken the french boy in the first place, because he had saved the lives of him, the queen and the new-born prince.  
And thus Mithian would likely drive a hard bargain  
“You want to sell me!”, Morgana yelled.  
“He is a good party. From what I heard he is courageous, kind and handsome. You can't ask for more!”  
“I don't know him! I will not marry a stranger!”  
“This is my fault. I should have pressured you into marriage much earlier.”  
“What? So you regret not selling me earlier!?”  
“Listen here: you will your do best to make this match happen! That is an order!”  
“Or what? You throw me into the dungeon again?”  
“I will respond to the only other offer: Odin.”  
Morgana recoiled in shock. “You wouldn't.”  
“Don't make us find out.”

Merlin was running. The coach from Nemeth had already been seen, and he was late on some stupid errands Arthur wanted him to do, before they arrived here. He had his arms full of cloth for the prince, when he bumped into someone and dropped everything.  
The man was tall, about an inch taller than him. He wore gambezon and a smile that could vanquish evil spirits.  
“Oh, I'm sorry, I'll help you.” He had already started picking up the cloth, before Merlin could say anything.  
“Thank, you. I have to get that to Arthur before the delegation from Nemeth comes here.”  
The man looked in the direction of the road. He couldn't see it, they were in an alley and he stared at a wall.  
“Better hurry up then, my sister is only one and a half mile from the gate.” He handed him the pieces of cloth.  
“How do you know that?”  
“I know how far they were, when I went ahead and I know how fast she's going. It's simple mathematics.”  
“Thank you!” Merlin ran off. Only when he had already entered the castle, it occurred to him, that the man had implied, that his sister was part of the delegation.  
The delegation, that consisted of only three people:  
Sir Ector, a knight whose name Merlin had to know thanks to Arthur in preparation for the meeting.  
Sir Alexander Sorl, the ward of king Rodor, who he had entrusted with the security of the last member:  
Princess Mithian, who was known to regard the former as her brother.  
The news, that an important knight, who they were awaiting, had entered the Camelot, without him being notified would make him furious.  
Merlin dropped the clothes and ran.

Morgana chuckled, when she saw Merlin running towards them.  
“You should cut him some slack. He looks, like he's running from the devil himself.”  
“And yet you managed to do the one thing, you were supposed to do.”  
Arthur was not sure, if he wanted to laugh at his servant, or just give up thinking about him altogether.  
Merlin did not turn or slow down. Instead he shouted: “He's already here!”  
“He IS running from the devil himself,” Morgana laughed.  
“You must have dropped these. I should have been more careful, when I pressed them into your hands, I should have waited until you had a proper grip on them.”  
A man had appeared behind Merlin, in his arms the clothes he was supposed to fetch.

Morgana had never forgotten that face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To be clear, the titel refers, to Uther's threat and to young Morgana's vision of Kara, which displays her as a a danger to her life.


	3. Violence can't solve all problems, but some it can

Mithian moved her hands rapidly. Sir Ector responded in kind. It was the only way to prevent Cara from eavesdropping. Not that she did it intentionally. Cara would just always listen, where she was subconsciously and thus notice every spoken word. When she noticed the sign-language, she had taken great care to prevent herself from picking it up.  
Right now Mithian was discussing the marriage-proposal for Morgana. Her parents had decided, that the negotiations themselves, could not hurt. Morgana had in the past clashed with Uther on multiple occasions, when she criticized his stance on magic, which made it unlikely, that she would tell anybody, that Cara was not entirely human.  
Her behavior towards past advances made it likely, that she would react favorably to not being married to a man.  
The issue about producing an heir was unclear. Talking to Cara about Krypton had revealed, that she had access to the same means of reproduction her people had used on Krypton. Whether that would work with a human and whether Morgana would be willing to conceive a child this way, was unknowable and unlikely.  
Likely/unlikely. Unknowable. That's why she was here. Also to negotiate the contract, that went with the marriage, but mainly, to make sure, that her 'brother' could live with the new wive.  
If not she could find a way, to bring the talks to an end.  
“Alex.” She spoke quietly, but even in a city like Camelot, Cara would not overhear her sister asking for him.  
“Yes?”  
“During the feast, I want you to make friends with our hosts, especially Morgana.”  
“Of course! What about Arthur?”, she beamed. She always loved making new friends.  
“It won't hurt, if you two get along, let me worry about him. Besides, I might get to meet a nice Knight for myself, before father starts making arrangements.”  
They both laughed. While that last part would be absolutely normal for a princess, with Alex as general and Carl as heir to the throne, alliance were no necessity for Nemeth.

“We already had this discussion!”  
“I am not hungry.” Part of Morgana just wanted to tell Uther, why she fell completely silent, when she first laid eyes on the war-hero that was supposed to marry her. But she couldn't. Best case, he would dismiss it as a nightmare, coincidence, her mis-remembering, a desperate lie.  
Or he would execute her for magic, she had no control over.  
“Stop it! I know, you would prefer to continue living your life here and stay unmarried forever, but you have to accept that that's impossible. You will have to marry someone and this man is most likely the best match, you can get! Not only politically, but personally as well. He is young, he is good-looking, the first thing he did, when we met him, was taking the blame for another one of Merlin's screw-ups. That boy is in his twenties and already a renowned hero and baron of the Isle of Mora! Why do you act, like I'm trying to feed you to a dragon?”  
Morgana could not respond.

She sat still in her chair. Of course she sat next to Alexander. As soon as the formalities were over, the brute had shoveled absurd amounts of food into himself. He somehow managed, not to sully himself and with an empty mouth, tried to make conversation.  
“Do you look forward to the tournament? I always enjoy them. It's a little weird. I like fighting, mainly because I'm good at it, but I don't like hurting people. So tournaments are great for me! Also they always sell food during tournaments, that you can't get elsewhere.”  
He abruptly stopped talking, probably trying to let her answer. When she remained quiet, he asked:”What is your favorite food?”  
“Edible.” She took a big gulp from her cup. The only thing, that disturbed her more than the obvious, was that the man beside her was so different from the man from her vision. Maybe she could pretend the drink had gotten to her head.  
She absentmindedly heard him talking about the importance of food to prevent starvation. He must have noticed, that she didn't care.  
“What do you enjoy?”  
Somehow, Morgana had no idea, what to answer. A part of her was afraid and wanted to present herself as harmless, non-aggressive, submissive.  
A part of her was angry and wanted to fight. This part was stronger.  
“I like to fight with words. I made frequently make courtiers cry and I take pride in it! But I also like to sword-fight. It feels good, to remind Arthur, that he's not invincible. I also like the feeling of wearing pants. Riding a horse is much more comfortable this way.”  
To her horror the man beside her seemed to be delighted. She had to run.  
Thankfully she looked quite pale. She held her hand in front of her mouth.  
“Excuse me, I feel unwell.” She bowed in Uther's direction and fled.

 

As always, Gwen was there for her.  
“We should be able to get him to break it off.”  
Morgana turned to face her:” The problem is, that Uther will not forgive me this. He will lock me u in the dungeons or marry me to Odin, just to make a point.”  
“I for one, do not understand, why you don't accept Alex. Not only his looks and reputation are good, but he seemed happy to hear, that you like fighting. You'd probably be the only wife that regularly got to attack her husband with a sword.”  
“That's an act. Uther probably thinks I love him, too.”  
“I see, if I can find any talk, about what he is like in private, but according to rumors, he is a saint”, Gwen conceded.  
“It's not just him though. I do not want to marry at all! The thought of a family never appeased me.”  
“But that's how the world is. Men die in wars and us women in childbirth. Life is about making the best of what we can chose. And you can chose, to look forward to Arthur beating that boy black and blue.”  
Morgana chuckled. Without armor Alexander looked like a tall child. He had worn loose clothes to the feast, but sitting right next to him, Morgana could not see any signs of actual muscle on him.  
“How the did those myths of him killing bears with bare hands come into existence?”, she mused.

Someone knocked. Gwen answered, only opening the door by a little bit. It was Alex.  
“Lord Sorl?”  
“Please. just Alex”, he spoke softly, as if he was expecting Morgana to be asleep and didn't want to wake her.  
“I understand, that the lady Morgana needs rest, but if she feels better, could you please relay a question to her?”  
“What is it?”  
“Before she had to excuse herself, she mentioned an affinity for physical combat. I would like her to invite her to spar with me. She did appear to be burdened, so... While violence does not solve problems, it sure can lighten the mood and clear the head, so finding a solution is easier. With all the administrative work she does, her schedule is likely fuller than mine. So whenever it would suit her, she can just let me know.”  
Morgana stared at the door. Had he eavesdropped? Impossible. The door had been closed and they had spoken fairly quietly. But here he was politely offering, that she could swing a sword at him, whenever she felt like it. Who could say no to that?  
Gwen knew her well:” I'm sure she would like to meet you in the arena tomorrow ofter the breakfast.”  
“Thank you,” his voice turned up a little with joy, but he quickly returned so speaking softly.  
“Does she have her own weaponry, or should I bring her some from the armory?”  
“She has gambezon, chain-mail and sword, you should worry about yourself.”

Morgana looked forward to swipe that stupid smile from that idiots face and couldn't prevent herself from grinning as Gwen helped her into her armor. Then she saw Alexander and was reminded of her dream and the grin left her face.  
He did not wear plate, only chain with gambezon underneath. In his left hand he carried a buckler, in his right a sword that had the elegance of a meat-cleaver, on his head a closed helmet.

Somehow his smile was visible through the helmet:” Hi! So, I heard, that you already have practical experience and are a capable duelist. And I am sure, you heard similar things about me.”  
Did than man really just compare a small battle against marauders and self taught expertise with a sword, with a carrier as a warrior?  
She had expected him to underestimate him, but now she was doubting her common sense.  
“But since neither of us knows the others actual skill, is suggest, we start slow anyway. You can always go harder, if you feel, that it's to easy.”  
Offensive.  
“Is that your preemptive excuse, for being bested by a girl.”  
His posture changed, and showed clear confusion. “Why would I need an excuse for being bested. It's in the very word itself. If someone can best me, she is better than me. There is no shame in that. However there is shame in denial.”  
She couldn't listen any longer and opened with a wide lounge, that he easily stepped out of.  
He then answered in similar fashion, a deep, exaggerated thrust, which she dodged.  
They were now close and he still stood wide open, his right side facing her.  
He should have retreated, Morgana struck towards his throat.  
He raised his buckler and ducked beneath her strike. Then he retaliated with another lunging stab and she had to jump away.  
So much for going easy. Morgana got some distance and considered her next move. Alexander had so far always stayed in the same stance, until she had made her move again, so he did now.  
Right arm outstretched towards her, buckler still held above the head, all his weight on his front foot. She circled him and he made small steps, to follow her.  
She attacked. A nudge with her blade, and the way was free, changing the grip to half-sword, to knock that helmet of his face.  
The buckler came forward, filling almost her entire field of view. It did not block the path of her attack, if he pulled through, her sword would reach his throat. The chain-mail would not give enough protection, she would not be able to cut him, but against the throat blunt force was enough to defeat a man.  
But neither the buckler nor her blade made contact. The knight just left her sight entirely within the blink of an eye, the buckler merely a feint, so she wouldn't alter her attack in time.  
He waited, until she turned her head towards him, to attack with another stab, that she barely avoided.  
“That won't do”, he said, not mockingly, but completely calm.  
“What do you mean?”, she sneered, returning a thrust of her own. He abandoned his stance, redirected her attack with his buckler and raised his sword in her direction, without attacking.  
“You are clearly self taught, which alone would not be bad, but now you use the wrong weapon.”  
“If you want to tell me, I should use a smaller...”  
“You should try a two-handed one.”  
That was unexpected. She had tried several different swords, when she had first started teaching herself. Initially, she had used a small sword and a round shield, but her reach was to short with this combination. Now she used a bastard-sword without shield, it was much lighter this way, but still tiring.  
“Why?”  
“What determines the winner of a duel?”  
Really, did he think he would earn himself any favor playing teacher?  
“Skill of course.”  
“A did not ask the right question. Let me try again: In which four ways can a combatant in a duel have an advantage over another?”  
“Do you mean like reach and strength?”  
“Exactly, two to go.”  
“I guess speed and technique.”  
“Perfect, yes. Now up till now, you've shown superior technique, but I was still able to outmaneuver you, why?”  
“Because you are fast? Why should I pick a two-handed then? I'd bee even slower then.”  
“You could train for a few weeks, maybe months, to be faster than me. But this is about, what you can do now. And right now you cannot overcome my speed with a bastard. What you can do however, is gain a different advantage, to compensate.”  
With a two-handed sword, she would most likely outreach him. That meant a change in tactics. Instead of trying to get close, so he could not thrust at her, she would keep him at the edge of her reach, striking hard, every time he attempted to attack.  
Suddenly he held a new weapon out for her to take. A long two-handed sword.  
She laid hers to the side and took it. With the larger handle, it was much more comfortable to hold. The weight of the longer weapon was now more evenly distributed between her arms, and the weapon felt lighter. Alexander had taken his distance and she made a few test swings.  
When swinging, she felt the greater force; more powerful attacks, but also less maneuverability.  
She tried half-swording. Easy.  
She changed her grip and opened with a murder-strike. Risky, but it paid of. He was on his back-foot. Even though he could prevent damage to himself with his buckler, every clash opened his defense and so she could force her direction on him.  
It felt great.  
They were nearing the fencing of the ring. And she could already see herself bludgeoning that helmet in, when he countered. It should have made her suspicious, that he had barely used his speed. The fencing didn't allow for much movement, but for enough.  
Her hilt came down, and instead of his helmet, it met his sword, changed direction slightly and now trapped her weapon on the ground. A foot against the flat side forced it out of her hand. She was beaten.  
“What do you prefer?”  
Morgana hated to admit it, but his advice had been good. If she had not gotten cocky, she the fight would have ended differently.  
“Against you, this seems to be the best choice”, she said and pointed at the weapon on the ground.  
He did not seem to think the same. How could a man with an obscured face express emotion this well?  
“I think it depends on the circumstance. In a duel, yes, this is the best choice. But there are a few weapons, I think that would suit you better, if you fought for your life. Wait here!”  
Before she could answer, he was of to the armory again. Did he plan to have a fight to the death with her now?

He came back with his arms full. He dropped most of them and handed her a dagger.  
“I thought, I should go for reach?”  
“If you also had one of these at your belt, how would our previous match have ended?”  
She played it through in her head. When he used his sword, to disarm her, it would have been fairly easy to get close, close enough to use the dagger. By sticking to his right side, he would have hard time bringing the sword back up.  
“It would come down to strength, probably,” she conceded.  
He nodded and gave her a halberd.  
“I have no idea, how to use those in the ring.”  
“I think, that's good. The guards mainly use them in formation. Highly effective in a battle, but just holding it out, won't do much good, when you're alone.”  
He picked up another one.  
“Do not use it like the guards would. In a scenario, where you would pick one up, you would likely be outnumbered. Which advantages can you use?”  
She gripped the halberd firmly and swung it at him. Downwards attacks would bury the head in the ground, horizontal attacks had to much momentum for her to stop them. So she didn't stop them. Pulling on the wooden staff pulled her forward, her legs following her body.  
A short grip let her change the direction, a far grip gave the attack power.  
She chased him through the ring again, her attacks unblockable.  
This time, she was more cautious. He could not block with his buckler, but with his sword, he surely could hack at the wood right below the head. Not easily, but if he managed, the head would break of and she was currently leaning against its momentum with her entire body. While she would be regaining her balance he could attack.  
Also her reach was an issue. Hers was longer, but if he managed to get close, the halberd lost a lot of its bite. She could still grab it in the middle and deliver quick, blunt attacks with the wooden end and thrust with the head, but against a skilled fighter, that wouldn't yield good results.  
She chose, to make a surprise-attack. She hauled in her weapon, pointing the pike towards Alex.  
She charged. With all her weight behind the thrust, he could not redirect it.  
When he side-stepped, she let go of the halberd and jumped at him, dagger in hand.  
The impact threw him to the ground with her on top of him.  
The dagger came down. Just below the helmet the chain-mail parted, to leave his face free, there he was only protected by the high collar of the gambezon. Her hands were making their way there.  
Then her chest hurt. His left arm with the buckler was hoisting her up.  
It was only a heartbeat, then she bounced of his unmoving arm. In this heartbeat, her arms had jerked down.  
They lay next to each other.  
“Are you alright? I didn't want to hurt you, but you really got me there.”  
He was alive. Gambezon didn't offer much protection against an attack like hers.  
Morgana groaned in response. She was not injured, but it still hurt. Not that she would admit that to him.  
“I thought I killed you.”  
“You were closest anybody ever got! Look you, pierced through the whole collar.”  
He had taken of the helmet and was beaming at her, the prospect of dying at her hands seemingly not irritating him the slightest bit.  
“How can you be so happy about almost getting killed?”  
“That means, were I'm learning.”  
“WHAT?”  
“Tell me, have you sparred with someone, who fights way worse than you?”  
“Yes?”  
“What did you learn during those fights?”  
“Nothing,..?”  
“Exactly! To improve, we most be confronted with our weaknesses. And you did so excellently. I can not rely on my speed to protect myself from you! How about you? Was I able, to push you to your limits?”  
The realization began to seep through to her and she to began grinning. She had bested a warrior, that had allegedly killed more enemies, than all of Camelot's knights together. An undefeated man had just admitted defeat against her.  
“I learned a lot to day!”  
“In that case I look forward to our next round. I assume, you wish to now take a bath before lunch.”  
She had not expected to be happy, that she had not killed him. She would try again tomorrow.


	4. Pleasantries

“I heard, Morgana tried to murder you?” Arthur wanted to console his guest, when he heard of the spar.  
“She came close. Do you spar with her as well?”, Alex replied with his signature smile.  
“Would you like to talk about it over a few cups of ale in the tavern?”  
“Of course!”  
So they went.  
“So, what do you think about Morgana?”  
“Your sister is a great fighter. I can tell, that she rarely has the opportunity to train, yet she demonstrates great technique and learned to handle new weaponry quickly. She displays great overall intelligence.”  
Arthur interrupted him:” You do know, that she is not my sister? She's Uther's ward.”  
“Really?”, he sounded, as if he thought Arthur was lying, “Well, Mithian and me are not related by blood either, but we grew up together and share familiar bond, so for all I'm concerned, she is my sister. I assumed, you regarded Morgana the same way.”  
“If we could choose family, then I'd choose her as my sister. You like her?”  
“A lot. Sadly, I'm fairly certain, that she, for some reason fears or hates me.”  
“Because she nearly killed you during the spar? I can assure you, that she does so, with everyone, she fights.”  
“No, of course, she would strike hard, when training for a Life-or-death-scenario. It's her behavior. When I am close to her, she loses her calm.”  
“You realize, that attraction can have a similar effect?”  
“I'm afraid, that it's not affection.”  
“You know why?”  
“I've spent a lot of time around Mithian and our mother Mary and thus among the court-ladies. While every single one of these women try to conceal their feelings in a different way, you'll learn at some point, to read the common signs.”  
“A ladies-man, are you?”  
“What?”, he seemed shocked at the insinuation.  
“Most people, that claim, they could read a woman's feelings, then brag about their conquests.”  
Alex' face calmed. “That is disgusting behavior. How would these men feel, if the women pretended to want it, only to attack them, once they stripped of their armor and were unarmed?”  
“Sounds, like you care about honor.”  
“It's more like: when people behave dishonorable, they often make a peaceful solution impossible. In a fight for your life, it can be dishonor or death, and then I understand, choosing the low road. But in every other scenario, you'd just provoke revenge.”  
“I wasn't expecting an answer like that, from a war-hero. But 'forget about honor, when you have to' and 'peace is the goal' doesn't sound so good in song. How did those stories about you came into existence anyway?”  
“Which ones? There are a lot.”  
“Let's start at the beginning. In the first version I heard, you defended the unconscious king from three dozen pirates, while at the same time helping the queen bringing the prince into this world.”  
Alex laughed and took a sip from his cup.  
“It's been some time, but I think it were not that many pirates and the king was definitely awake and didn't need my protection. And the prince had already been born, when they had been kidnapped. We should make a game out of this. You say, what the stories say, and I tell you, what actually happened!”  
“As a child, you would run around Nemeth and kill dangerous animals with your bare hands.”  
“What? I was busy learning English! When would I have time to do that?”  
Another swig. At this rate, Arthur would have the man drunk in no time. And drunks and kids were honest.  
“The Saxon invaders?”  
“What does the story say?”  
“You awaited them at the bay, they wanted to make land, and killed everyone, that stepped of their boats, until they fled.”  
“That ones pretty close, but it sounds, as if I was alone! You see, the bay they choose, is flanked by cliffs and covered by trees. I may have been the only one they saw, but I did not have to kill them all single-handedley until they fled.”  
“What about Odin? I know for a fact, that Rodor negotiated a non-aggression-pact with him. How did that turn into 'You killed his entire army and then beat Odin black and blue'?”  
Another gulp. Arthur thought himselft well on his way, to find out, what Alex was like in private.  
“Ah, yes. Do you also know, how the negotiations went? Well father had invited Odin for negations, making it clear in his letters, that he wanted to pursue the intruders even in Odin's territory.  
So Rodor went close to the border, where the negotiations should take place and wouldn't you know it? Instead of King Odin, his men, badly disguised as bandits came from Cornwall. Back then, I wasn't a knight yet, so I came to late, to prevent father from being kidnapped. I found the 'bandits' and killed them. The speech, with which I confronted Odin came from Mithian, so really, my role on this issue got exaggerated.”  
“Now I really want to hear that speech, if it made Odin agree to a truce!”  
“I don't remember the exact words anymore, but it boiled down to me bluffing him into submission.”  
“Bluffing?”  
“Well, I entered his castle with the corpses of his men on a cart, and spoke, like I actually believed, they were bandits, while making clear, that I knew better. I was like 'well these bandits, who you definitely do not work with, kidnapped King Rodor. The reason, he is here, is because, you freed him. If it turned out, that you did work with these criminals, or that you hold my king against his will, I'd have to challenge you to a duel to the death. But I won't have to kill you. Because, you are an ally, and you will make sure, that no more bandits from Cornwall attack Nemeth's citizens.'  
And so he returned Rodor and stopped his intrusions, because, he feared that we'd then declare war on him.”  
There was something wrong with this story. The only way, that him entering Odin's castle wouldn't already be an act of war, was if he'd come alone. And then, he would have never survived threatening Odin.  
If he wanted to make Rodor's ward speak his mind, he'd need to get him much more drunk.  
“You handle your drink really well, better than I expected from your appearance.”  
Sometimes the shortest connection between two points was a straight line.  
“Yes, it's the reason for my appetite. You see, I was born with a rather rare sickness. My body doesn't digest properly, so to still my hunger, I have to eat a lot more, than is normal, for a human of my stature. A positive side effect is, that I also can survive much greater dosages of poisons of all kinds, including alcohol. I'm probably the only living person, that knows the taste of aconite.”  
“You're seriously telling me, you can't be drunk or poisoned?”  
“I can, but when people try to poison someone, the usually use as little as possible, so the smell won't give it away and I can survive those dosages. As for drunk, I never really tried to.”  
“Then you missed out. Let me teach you!”

Merlin was curious, if Arthur's plan had yielded any results. Morgana had informed him, that she had had a sinister vision of Alexander and so he wanted to know what it was about. She wouldn't tell him more, than that the Nemethian knight was dangerous. So he asked Kilgarrah. His answer was most confusing. It was the first time, that he straight up said, to not know anything about something, which was most curious, considering his fortune telling abilities. Then he instructed Merlin, to again find out as much as possible, about the knight he knew nothing about. He said, that Morgana's vision came to her a different way, than his knowledge of the future, and so it was both possible, that her vision was true or that it was a made up reason for her to abhor a man she didn't want to marry. When Merlin asked, if it wouldn't be good, to marry her off, since she couldn't attack Camelot, if she was away, the dragon deflected and ended the conversation.  
So he told Arthur. Of course nothing about the vision or the dragon, but that he didn't trust Alexander and that neither of them actually knew anything about him.  
Arthur had already been ahead of him:” Pick me up at the tavern.”  
“What why?”  
“Drunk people are honest. I'll at least have to pretend to be drunk. So when I have no more questions, you need to come and pick me up.”

So now he was in the tavern and Arthur was not just pretending to be drunk. The plan must have backfired somehow, because Alexander appeared to be sober.  
“You will have to stop talking about Guinevere, it seems you are missed in the castle.  
I'll help you carry him, Merlin.”  
Arthur just smiled dopeyly.  
Alexander carried Arthur pretty much alone to his chamber, Merlin leading the way.

“Do you think, I overdid the act?”, Arthur said, his posture changing as soon as Alex left the room.  
“Why did you even bother? You seem to be terrible at getting people drunk!”  
“He recovers incredibly quick. He has this sickness, that makes it, so he has to drink a lot, to feel it.”  
“That sounds like magic! He used a spell to out drink you!”  
“Before you make that accusation in front of my father, I want to talk to Gaius about this. Because this sickness would explain a lot, that magic wouldn't.”  
“Like what?”  
“His appetite.”  
“So did you find out anything, we can tell Morgana?”  
“He's not french.”  
“WHAT?”  
“He traveled like really much. I think he made up half the places, he said he visited and I doubt, he visited others, just because it sounded impossible, but he definitely learned Latin before he learned French. He speaks a lot of languages the way you only learn them, if you talk with native speakers. He only happened to be in France, when those pirates picked him up.”  
“So where does he come from? Does his royal family know?”  
“One of the places that sounded made up: Krypton. His family knows but doesn't care. To them he is as Nemethian as they are.”  
“So that's useless. What else have you found out?”  
“He's the most kind person I've ever encountered. I thought, it was an act at first. But by now I think he genuinely is this nice. And after Morgana sparred with him this morning, she should have come to the same conclusion.”  
“What are you talking about?”  
“He's the best thing that could happen to her. The only reason, she wouldn't be happy, is if she already hated him. The question is: why?”  
“Ehm. I think, it's because she doesn't want to marry, like at all.”  
“Merlin, do you know, what I thought, when Uther told me, that he had opened marriage negotiations with Nemeth? I thought he meant me and Mithian. And I thought 'thank god I get to marry a women, who is said to be smart, good-looking and close to me in age!'. The reason I hate to talk about Gwen is because I know, it will never be. Of course I would prefer to marry for love, but that's not a choice royals have. And Morgana is to smart, to not be aware of this. The best, people like us can hope for, is that they grow to like the ones they marry. So here she gets a man, women would kill for. Your argument makes no sense. Do you think, she's the first royal, who didn't want to marry? You should have seen, how Alex treated the girls at the tavern! I don't think he even realized, what they were after! For women, that don't want to marry, he's a dream come true! Another thing: I don't think his beloved sister has told him about the negotiations!  
So that's that nothing left to do for today. I want to sleep now.”

That Alexander didn't look, like he would mistreat Morgana, or that he had as much of a choice, as her, didn't change anything for Merlin. But it was not all for nothing. Maybe Kilgarrah would reveal more, now that he could tell him something about this mysterious knight. And as soon as he could get Arthur out of bed, he would talk to Gaius, about that alleged sickness. And then there were the plans for the luncheon tomorrow. Morgana could probe Mithian on this occasion. He decided to to pay a visit to the dragon right away, since the next day would be really busy.

“Arthur said, Alexander comes from a place called 'Krypton'”  
“Now this is curious. Are you sure, that this is true?”  
“Arthur thinks, that Alexander made that place up, but he is definitely not french. What does that tell you?”  
“Why would somebody tell an unbelievable lie? It could be true.” the dragon smiled.  
“So? What is so curious about him being Kryptonian?”  
“Krypton is no human realm I ever heard of. But here is the thing: I know a lot and traveled for hundreds of miles, before I was imprisoned here. On the other side: hundreds of miles is nothing in comparison to the entire world. For all I know, Krypton could be a small Greece island and I wouldn't know. What is important is, that he is so foreign, that I can't tell his role in the events to come. But Morgana's vision cannot be wrong. If she spoke the truth, that she saw him as a danger, then he will be, and we can't know, how to steer him from this path! Maybe he will get angry, if he can't marry her, maybe he learns to hate her, after they've been close for some time. Maybe I haven't heard of the human country he is from, because he is not human. Maybe he is from so far away, that the prophecies did not see him coming, and thus he could alter the course of history. Or maybe he is so insignificant, that all the oracles and seers simply didn't bother. He is an enigma I couldn't help you with, even if I wanted.”

"Ah yes. 'Hyperthyroidism", a rare sickness indeed. I fear, I have no experience with this phenomenon. Constant hunger is one of the most famous symptoms of an overactive thyroid gland. Why do you ask." "Alexander claims, that due to his sickness, he could not get drunk, because his body would not process food and drink properly." "The way I understand the work of the thyroid gland, it is entirely possible, that that would be the case. It would correlate with frequent diarrhea though." "He does excuse himself quite often. So there you have it Merlin. He is not an evil sorcerer, that has enchanted all but Morgana and you! Now go and prepare for the luncheon." "If it's possible, my lord, I could still use Merlin's help for a few minutes." "Yes of course, just send him back in time." Arthur left. "The thyroid gland works nothing like that. If anything, he would be even more susceptible to most poisons. People with hyperthyroidism also suffer from muscle weakness. Maybe there is an different disease, that causes his appetite, like a tapeworm, but nothing backs up his resistance to alcohol. Did he say the limits of his 'resistance'?" "Apparantly he 'knows the taste of aconitum'." "That is impossible! The dosage required to kill a man is much less, than anybody could smell. It is called wolfsbane, because even a wolf can not recognise a lethal dose by smell. The amount needed, so he could taste it, would kill an entire city!" "So he uses magic to protect himself from poisons?" "There is definitivly magic at work, but he is not necessarily the caster. France was fighting the plague during the time he came into the royal family. Maybe his birth-mother enchanted him, so he would not get sick and be safe. The cost of this spell is his hunger." "And he would think of it, as his body's normal work. How do we find out, what it is?" "We poison him. If he is a magic user, he'll have to react, for example by recasting the spell. If not, then his resistance will hold, without any action on his side. Except may even more eating." 

Mithian gave her brother a look and Morgana saw his posture change to one, that fit more to a human, that carried food, blankets and pillows for four royals and company of two. He had refused, to let someone carry his and Mithian's part from the beginning and had taken Merlin's load, as soon as he saw him struggling with the weight.  
She had become suspicious during the spar and now she kept seeing the hints, that he held back. He had been able to stop her momentum from piercing his throat, without breaking a sweat. When he had brought the weapons he had been much faster, than when he had fought her. And now he needed to to be reminded to signs of strain, when carrying two heavy baskets, four thick blankets, eight pillows and a bundle of sticks and hardware for the games.  
“I heard you are a passionate hunter as well?”, Mithian was talking to Arthur.  
“I am, so is lady Morgana. You and Alex to?”  
“I greatly enjoy it. Cara is not much of a hunter.”  
“Cara?”  
“His nickname. Before his English was good enough, he would always address me as cara. 'Cara soror', 'cara Mithian' or just 'cara'. So at some point, I responded in kind and it stuck. A fitting name I think. He doesn't like killing, not even animals. Also he is a terrible shot, but an excellent tracker. So he'll go and kill serkets to make the woods save, but not bring a single deer home.”  
“So how about we arrange a hunt after the tournament?”  
“That would be lovely.”

They had been playing and eating for some time, when Merlin had to disturb Mithian and Morgana's talk. They seemed to get along. But he had to pack up the basket and thus needed to ask:” Do you still need these plates?”  
“Tell me Merlin, what were your thoughts on Arthur, when you first met him?”, Mithian asked, as she handed him her plate.  
“I did not like him, before I got to know him.”  
“I believe the word prat was used”, Morgana cut in.  
“We still refer to each other by these names, but I've seen how selfless he can be and even when he shouts at me, I know he still considers me a friend. I've grown to respect him and I am happy, to be by his side.”  
Mithian looked at Morgana, as if she had proven a point.

Mithian indicated, that she did not see Cara's and Morgana's relationship developing well.  
Sir Ector answered, that, according to king Uther's advisers, it was good, that Morgana had not yet managed to scare him away.  
Mithian elaborated, that the problem did not seem to be Alex but marrying in general. Morgana did not know him well enough, to know her fears, would be unfounded with him.  
Sir Ector suggested, to tell Alex of the marriage and he would be much more easily able to convince Morgana, but Mithian refused, since she wanted her brother to get to know his bride without the thought of marriage in his head. She would take the responsibility, when he learned it.  
Sir Ector asked about the sparring.  
She responded, that both Morgana and Alex seemed to enjoy it, and it would surely help Morgana build trust to him.  
Sir Ector closed, he would write king Rodor and would ask king Uther about the dowry, that would come with the marriage.

“Why did you want me to come here?”  
Merlin was together with Morgana in Gwen's house.  
“Alexander will not break of that thing on his own. So we will make Uther do it.”  
“And we are here because?”  
“You'll need to hire a prostitute for me.”  
“What? Why?”  
“She is supposed to seduce him. He gets caught. Uther will refuse to marry me to him.”  
Merlin doubted, that the plan would work. After all, Uther was threatening Morgana with Odin.  
“What about the money? Gwen and I can't exactly spare this much and Uther would surely not give allowance for this either?”  
“Let me worry about it.”

Merlin had brought a beautiful women to Gwen's house. Morgana gave her a dress, she had brought with her and the prostitute looked, like she belonged into a castle. Both Morgana and the woman very confident, that she could do the job.

She returned the money, Morgana had given her.  
“What? Why?”  
“I did not sleep with him.”  
“Let me guess: He didn't even realize, you were flirting with him.”  
“He did. He realized, what I was quickly and asked, why I was doing, what I was doing.”  
“What did you tell him?!”  
“Don't worry I did not tell him about you. I claimed, that I would frequently sneak into the castle, because it was normally easier to get a well paying costumer there. But then, I could not continue. You see men, that are aware of my work either treat me as an object to sate their lust, or as if I was a criminal. Never with respect. But he did. He asked, If I got into trouble, for sneaking in and offered to sneak me out, if I needed it. I thought he was going to talk like one of those preachers, that say, that they could free me from prostitution, if I became a nun instead.”  
“Honestly, being a nun sounds preferable, when I look at the people, that hire prostitutes”, Morgana said, uncaring of the irony.  
The woman ignored it.  
“I told him, I didn't want his help and he just wished me good luck and I was trying to somehow turn this into heated conversation. I got him to talk about himself. I have no idea, what he did to you, that you wanted him to be caught with me, but I can assure you, that he does not deserves such treatment.”  
“What are you talking about?”  
“This isn't the first time, I was tasked to do this. After all I've been to a few courts. You wanted him to be caught, so he would be dishonored and excluded from the court for some time. I just don't understand why you would want to do this to him, since you have always been known to be kind to the innocent.”  
“If you must know, he is supposed to marry me.”  
“Then why don't you just do it? I've spent the entire night with him. If you had an affair, he'd probably just congratulate you, that you found someone to love!”  
“You're telling me just talked throughout the night? Did it happen in private?”  
“There were no witnesses, that could saw, that we were only talking, but I will not falsely testify against him!”

Morgana was in the mood for blunt force. She may not like the baron himself, but she like the way, he fought with her and let her fight him. She picked a mace and a strap shield from the armory. She knew, that her physique did not favor a short, heavy weapon, but she did not want to fight smart today.  
“Oh, you want to train with a mace. Well, we can still try these later.” He held a small box.  
“What do you have there?”  
“A small gift.” He gave her the box. “I thought, there's no reason, you shouldn't have your own.”  
In the box were two daggers. The blade was about a foot long and extremely thin. Not good for cutting, but if it held ideal for thrusting. It would go through bad armor without any resistance.  
The grip was plain and had a pommel. The hilt had a cross-guard even more prominent than a parry-dagger. The cross-guard bent upwards towards the blade and ended in a sharp tip. The weapon looked like a miss-proportionate fork. She picked one up. It was a light weapon, very fast. She switched between forehand and backhand grip. The pommel allowed her to change the direction of the blade quickly. The prongs could be used, to trap a weapon. It depended on the quality of the steel.  
“Where did you get them?”  
“I already had them. I never really get to use them, but you were so good with a dagger. I think, you will like them. They are good for throwing and can be easily hid in normal clothing.”  
“I have never seen this style of weapon. Were they made for you?”  
She had taken the other one from the box and tucked it into her belt. She was twirling and juggling the other one.  
“No. The man, that gave them to me, came from the far east. Their fighting styles are completely different from ours. I learned quiet a lot from him.”  
“Does their fighting style work?”  
“What do you mean? Why would it not work?”  
“During tournaments we often have a few men, that try to use a foreign style and mostly they are eliminated in the first round.”  
“The premise is a different one. Most European fighting styles assume, that both fighters are trained, armed and clad in iron.  
The style I learned is used by monks to defend against bandits. It has many techniques for unarmed fighting that are superior to simple wrestling and punching. But you came, to hit me. Shall we start?”  
Instead of his own sword, he had picked up a normal one-handed sword. He had obviously planed, to teach her the use of these daggers today.  
“You will not walk away unharmed”, she promised with a smile and attacked his head.  
He parried with his shield, so she tried to hit him with the edge of hers. He stepped back and was out of reach.  
She was going to enjoy, hitting him.


	5. The tournament is fun

She could not allow for him to win the tournament. But right now Arthur was to full of himself to stand a chance.  
So now Morgana walked up to him during his drills.  
“What are you doing here?”  
“Make sure, that you do not bring shame to Camelot.”  
“What?”  
“How do you want to perform during the tournament?”  
“I aim to win in every category, of course!”  
“And how you expect to perform against Sir Sorl?”  
“I will beat him, of course! That scrawny french boy doesn't stand a chance against me.”  
Morgana had to hold back laughter:“I'm even weaker and you never beat me. I don't worry about archery, but you don't stand a chance in unarmed combat and don't think you would win in the mixed duel.”  
“How would that boy beat me unarmed?”  
Morgana grabbed his sword hand, spun to pull him close, and threw him over her shoulder.  
“He taught me this today. He mastered a whole fighting style, dedicated to take out people that are bigger, stronger and better armed.  
Your insistence to fight with just a sword will make the mixed duel easy for him.  
Regardless: against another sword fighter, you're no push-over. If I can prepare you, you stand a chance. About the melee and jousting, I can't help you there.”  
She helped him up and drew her sword.

They sparred for a few minutes, when Morgana considered it necessary to speak up again:”you are aware, that he is both faster and stronger than I am? When he thrusts, try to trap his blade.  
He is good at fighting bodily, but he always tries to avoid it, so I think you will be able to push him over.”

“I don't get it.” Gwen was helping Morgana to decide on a dress for the tournament.  
“What do you not get? I think for this occasion, I should go for golden and red.”  
“The colors of Camelot, of course. I don't understand, why you made the effort, to make Arthur win. Normally you enjoy every occasion to see him humiliated. Hell you laughed when a woman, who was OBVIOUSLY a witch, defeated him.”  
“This is different. He represents Camelot in the tournament...”  
“You are smarter than, to use these flat claims with your best friend.”  
“It's about Cara.”  
“Now we're getting somewhere. But that doesn't change, that your hatred for him doesn't make sense. He treats you better and with more respect than Arthur had treated Lancelot! He just talked and listened to a prostitute! He trains fighting with you daily!  
Hell, even if you dislike men in general, he would still be a good match!  
Just marry him!”  
Morgana did not get angry at this outburst, like Gwen had expected.  
Instead she slumped down.  
“I would love to. He is a dream-prince.”  
Gwen sat on the bed next to her to comfort her.  
“What's keeping you?”  
“Magic”  
“You were cursed?! I'm sure Gaius or...”  
“I'm not cursed,” Morgana cut her of.  
“I have magic. The fire in my room, that was me.”  
“Why?”  
“I can't control it. Merlin knows, and I think so does Gaius. Those druids had not kidnapped me. Had fled to them, so they could train me.”  
“And you fear, that you will be unable to hide it, when you get married. But it could actually make it easier. I mean: think about Cara. I bet all his grand feats were accomplished with magic! I heard they are really lax with magic in the north.”  
“He doesn't need magic to defeat a horde of saxons and magic won't protect me from him.”  
“You say that, as if you knew for certain.”  
“Because I do. My nightmares are not just dreams. As far as I know, they all came true.”  
“You had a vision of him fighting you?”  
“No. I had a vision of him beating me to pulp. If we were fighting I could have defended myself.”  
“Maybe you didn't see the context right, he seems to like you so much. Maybe you were sparring, or maybe...”  
“He wore armor. I did not see his face, until both my arms and legs were broken and he was about to finish me of,...”  
Morgana trailed, having just remembered something.  
Gwen noticed the change.  
“You know what? Maybe you are right, there are countless myths about visions and prophecies being misinterpreted. I have to figure something out.  
Do you think, you could find a clear answer, on how the nemethians handle magic?”  
Morgana had remembered, what the last thing she had seen in that vision had been: her own face.

Gwen was on her way back to her house, when she met princess Mithian.  
“Is lady Morgana asleep already?”  
“I'm afraid so. Is there a message, I can give her in the morning?”  
“Thank you. I'm ashamed, that I thought about that earlier, but could she accompany me to the tournament? I am afraid, that I busied myself so much with politics, that I forgot to socialize!”  
“I'm sure she would gladly do so.”  
“I can tell, that you wish to ask me something.”  
“I don't want to bother you.”  
“Please, every excuse, not to go back to my brother.”  
Gwen looked incredulously at the princess.  
“He decided to adopt a hound and now shows a disgusting amount of affection. So, what can I help you with?”  
“Well, I was curious. I heard, that Nemeth handled magic 'negligently'. Now, I know, that Camelot is among the stricter nations, but...”  
“You want to ask, if magic is legal in Nemeth.”  
“Yes.”  
“It is of course not officially legal. Uther would allow us in his court, if it was. But due to financial reason, we don't go out of our way, to punish the mere existence of magic. 'Nullum ius sine actione'.  
Unless someone commits a crime using magic, we will not bother prosecuting magic.”  
“Does it work.”  
“From what I hear, it works better, than Uther's approach. There are not constantly witches and fae trying to kill the king and take over the kingdom.”  
Gwen laughed and said her goodbye.

Arthur had signed up for archery, duel with sword, jousting, the melee and despite Morgana's advice in the mixed duel. She had warned him, that she considered sir Sorl invincible in this category, but right after the melee it considered as the most important test of skill.

Morgana lead Mithian to their seats, right besides king Uther.  
“Your adoptive brother wears little armor.”, he commented on the knight's entrance. He wore gambezon and a chain-mail hauberk, but the hauberk was sleeveless and only reached down to his waist instead of to his knees. His arms and legs were somewhat protected by plates, but required a rather active defense none the less.  
“Indeed, he greatly uses his speed. He says, that he doesn't get hit often enough to justify the weight.”  
“He is fast, but against to Arthur and in the melee he will need armor. He is going to get cut up.” Morgana threw in.  
“He didn't wear more when he fought of the saxons or Odin's men. I think it is entirely possible that he will take the title of champion from Arthur.”  
“Do you want to bet? You'll owe me a favor if Arthur wins the tournament and vice versa.”  
“Agreed.”  
Uther listened happily to the banter between the ladies. Cheering for a champion was an elementary part of a tournament.

Arthur watched Sorl's first unarmed fight against a knight, who he knew was a rude man.  
He was glad, that he had heeded Morgana's warning and not signed up for this category. The nemethian could have let the fight end in the first second, after he had dislocated his enemy's right shoulder. Instead he kicked his legs apart, forcing him into a painful, undignified split, pulled him back upright and slapped him with his left hand pulling at his shoulder. His face was in the dirt and his feet in the air and as a last act Alexander grabbed his calf and threw him across the arena.  
The man, Morgana had sparred with, was certainly stronger than he looked.

Even though sir Sorl did not compete in archery, Morgana had not expected Arthur to go this uncontested. His most promising opponents would either drastically overshoot or undershoot on their first round against him and then over correct on their next round. With two total misses even their perfect hit in the last round was not enough to save to win against Arthur's solid performance.  
Morgana considered the possibility of sabotage in Arthur's favor and indeed, when she watched the arrows cautiously, she saw them behave odd: those that overshoot, would fly just as they should, until they were only a few yards away from the target, then they would just pick up speed and fly over the target, as they were rammed by something unseeable fast.  
Similarly, the undershoot ones would fly like they should, and then suddenly change their course downward, as if something just fell onto them. Morgana reasoned, that if the object was small enough, nobody would be able to see it.  
While it would in theory could be possible, to throw a pebble, so it would hit the arrowhead in midair, the required speed and precision left only one explanation: Magic.  
Before the finale she noticed Mithian whisper something to her brother, and Arthur's last opponent shoot much better, missing 'only' his last shoot.  
She had to tell Merlin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do I use the genitiv s correctly? I can never tell.


	6. Victory

Morgana couldn't find Merlin until shortly before the sword-fighting was supposed to start. She knew, that he would now be in Arthur's tent to help him prepare, so she went there.  
On her way, she passed the tent of sir Sorl. She couldn't resist the opportunity to spy.  
“Why was it so important, that Arthur won archery? You said it yourself: if I interfere to much, they'd suspect magic.”  
“Because Arthur needs to be second in the tournament, or Uther might disown him. I don't want him to become bitter.”  
“So I won unarmed and he won archery, but those are the least respected disciplines. From what I heard he is a great sword fighter, so I give him the victory here. Morgana has been sparring with me and would notice, if I did not win in mixed combat. My reputation also predestines me for the melee. That's three to two. With jousting it's either a draw or four to two.”  
“You forgot about duel on horseback again. I'd say watch how Arthur performs there, and depending on that either win or let Arthur win jousting.”  
“No problem.”  
Morgana stopped listening and reconsidered, what she would tell Merlin and Arthur.  
“One last thing: When you won, don't give the laurel wreath to me.”  
“But I always give it to you or mom.”  
“We don't want to display supremacy.”

Alexander was holding back. Mostly. Against most of his enemies, he gave the impression of an even fight. But some knights had apparently not seen his unarmed performance and decided to be disrespectful. Alexander beat those, without even using his sword, only hitting them with his buckler. To the common spectators, this made them look like pushovers.  
Arthur could tell, that the nemethian knight was as capable, as Morgana had made him out to be.  
His own fights had been unremarkable, so he looked forward to facing his strongest competitor.

Arthur decided to start offensive. He had the reach advantage, which would be much harder to use, if he had to defend himself.  
His opponent didn't retreat, but instead redirected his attacks with his buckler and sword.  
Arthur attacked his ankles and got a reaction. Alex jumped over the blade towards Arthur, his blade in front of him.  
Arthur rolled aside and brought up his shield just in time to block another attack.  
They were closer now and Alex was on the offensive. Arthur's big strap-shield made defending easy, but the impacts were heavy and so he saw himself retreating.  
Alex raised his left arm. A feint, Arthur had seen him use in a previous fight. He ducked and brought his shield up to his head. Alex' sword hit the edge of the shield hard and ripped it sideways.  
Arthur's weight was on his front foot. He followed the momentum of the impact to turn quickly, changing to a reverse grip.  
Alex noticed the attack on his legs late, but early enough to prevent Arthur from piercing his calf. Arthur's sword was driven into the sand behind Alex' feet.  
As Arthur had expected. In one motion he got back to full height and pushed himself shield first against his opponent. He tripped over the sword, now one of them was on his back and the other was unarmed.  
Arthur picked up his weapon faster, than Alex got up. He now was much faster than his opponent.  
And Alex yielded.  
“Really? And here I thought, I would have to keep going for another hour!”  
“Don't be ridiculous, aside from Morgana no one brought me ever this close to getting injured! I have to acknowledge when I've been bested.”  
Arthur smiled as he raised his right arm to show his victory. He was not sure, whether his shoulder would allow him to lift his left arm.

Gaius applied a salve to the shoulder. It was not dislocated or anything, just hurt from the sudden strain when Alex' last attack had hit his shield.  
The salve helped instantly. He would be able to participate in the mixed combat.  
“Don't go!”  
“Morgana, it's not a problem. My shoulder is fine.”  
“Mixed combat is already brutal as it is, but Sorl actually wants to win this round!”  
“He also tried to win last round.”  
“Do you really think that?”  
“He's walking around with a halberd! In a duel! I'll make him regret his arrogance.”

Arthur regretted his arrogance. He had expected Alex to use the reach of the halberd, to try and harass him from a distance. That turned out to be the case. He then expected to be able to get close, so he could use his sword. He did get close.  
He was not sure what had happened next. He recalled Alex changing his grip to met his sword with the head of his weapon. At some point his sword was trapped and pulled aside, then something wooden hit his helmet and he was disoriented on the ground.  
The world remained out of focus for quite a while after the fight. He could not be sure, but he thought somebody said something, about him keeping up the longest.  
When he could think clear again he found out, that Alex' fights had generally only lasted for a few heartbeats, mostly with him disarming his opponent with his first attack and immediately afterward placing the point of his halberd in the eye slit or directly below the helmet, without harming his opponent.

Cara was glad to notice, that she had not been to hard on Arthur. He was a good rider, which helped compensate his exhaustion. The rules for mounted sword-fight were also fairly strict. Falling of, disarmament or injury of the mount all meant loss of the fight.  
Since both he and his horse had experience in real mounted combat, he had a good advantage over most of his opponents. In the beginning Cara considered, losing earlier on, but as the fights came along, she realized, that the remaining participants were serious competition for Arthur.  
So now he had won his half-finale by feigning an attack at the horse, which in turn reared up and threw down its rider.

“Why is sir Sorl holding back?”  
“What do you mean? He really is not nearly as good a horse-rider as he wishes he was. He loves horses. It really bothers him, that he can't handle them well.”  
“Please, I know he held back against me and he didn't even give Arthur half of that.”  
“What are you implying? That he's letting your prince win? Do you not believe, that he should have won?”  
“I would like to understand, why he would go easy on someone.”  
“You suggest, that his defeat was a choice. If that was the case, then the victory in Arthur's favorite discipline would have been good for nothing but bragging.”  
“Is that not, what you are doing?”  
“No, we are proving our strength as allies.”

Arthur was in the finale in mounted sword-fight against Alex and he noticed something: The nemethian was not a good rider. He had only prevailed, because he was a good fighter.  
His horse trotted towards his enemy, turned or remained calm. Arthur had no problem outmaneuvering him and attacking his back-side. Even though he had to look over his shoulder and frequently change weapon hands, his defense was admirable. Of course not good enough to win, but it made Arthur wonder, how he ever won on foot against him.  
“I trust, you will do better at jousting?”  
“I can go straight forward.” The knight took his defeat in good humor: ”It's just precision, worry about yourself prince.”

Cara didn't like jousting. She was good at it, but she always felt, like she was cheating. More than when she used her extremely quick perception to easily win fights. When Cara was hit by a lance, she simulated being heavy using her flight. Her strength allowed her to easily keep her own lance steady when it impacted.  
And to make it worse, every now and then, she blew Arthur's opponent of their horses, to make sure, that the prince would be in the finale. Not that he would win, of course.

The feast was progressing, just as Morgana had planned. So far, none of the knights had died, and only few, Arthur not included were injured heavily enough, to require absence. Yet she felt bad. She had expected Sorl to be a strong contestant, but now he had reached a draw against Arthur and thanks to his exotic fighting style and charm, the crowd loved him. Uther would be furious.

Uther was furious: “You dishonored Camelot! First against that witch, now that boy? You should be the uncontested champion!”  
“That boy is a legendary war hero and supposed to marry Morgana. Besides I defeated him with the sword”, Arthur defended, knowing that his father didn't care,” he is the only one in the entire tournament, that scored against me. He didn't even compete in archery.”  
“Archery! Who cares about archery? You have to be strong! You will beat him in the melee, do you understand?”  
The conversation was ended there. And Cara thought about, how she could turn this situation for the best.

The melee was a brutal competition. The contestants started out on horseback, if they had a horse. Those were usually the first causalities. Shortly after, those that were not good in quickly dismounting got their legs crushed underneath their injured horses. Then the remaining contestants fought usually on foot. The weapons were blunted, but since maces and hammers were allowed, that still meant broken bones. The rules stated, that once you received a hit that would have been lethal in an actual battle, you were out. But first there were those, whose pride prevented their retreat, until they were actually injured, then those, whose injury prevented them from getting to safety. All of these together made this the part of the tournament with the most deaths and injuries, more than the entire rest of the tournament together, and the reason it always came last.

Naturally Morgana, Gwen, Merlin and Mithian were worried. The first three of course about Arthur, the last one about a man, she just met. Mithian had taken a liking to sir Leon, Arthur's second in command. There was also the worry, that her brother might overdo it or otherwise be found out, that Arthur would be eliminated prematurely or that Uther would not forgive his son, for being second. But she trusted her brother and it wasn't the first time, he fought in a melee.

Arthur was focused. With the most dangerous discipline ahead of him, the choice of armor was crucial. Most knights chose to wear a closed helmet without visor, for obvious reasons. But maximum protection came at a price. After only a short time of fighting it would be hard to breath and see through those. Arthur opted for an open helmet. While offering a lot less protection, he would not have to remove it in the later fight. On the rest of the body, the popular choice was oddly enough the opposite, with many choosing only gambezon and leather, in fear that metal would slow them down to much. His experience told him, that this depended mostly on the quality of the armor. While chain-mail and plates were obviously heavy, the weight of a good armor was well distributed and only made a difference, when worn over multiple hours; Since his was made for him, it didn't infringe on his movement. To him it was between being slightly more sweaty or much more bruised at the end. Next was the horse. The phase that was fought on horseback was usually fairly short and lances were not among the allowed weapons, so he went for one of the cheaper, less experienced horses as well as a saddle the allowed for quick dismount instead of a more comfortable variant.  
The choice of weapon was simple: his trusty sword had never let him down.  
Shields were another question. While large kite-shields, especially on horseback gave good protection, they were also heavy and slow, once on foot. Round shields with a center grip were among the most versatile on foot, but extremely tiring to use. Arthur decided to go for his usual strap-shield.

As expected the first phase of the melee was utter mayhem. The uninjured horses quickly left the field, the others tried to follow, making for slow moving barriers, that were dangerous to approach.  
Arthur caught a glimpse of sir Sorl and understood, how he could enter and leave Odin's castle:  
While during the duels his movements were precise and just strong enough to have the desired effect, now against multiple opponents they were all speed. In the previous fights he had restricted himself to the fighting styles that were intended in the disciplines, but here his foot kicked a man out of the field, while his mace destroyed another ones sword arm and his shield knocked a third ones attack aside.  
As Arthur fought, the nemethian moved through the field like a whirlwind of steel.  
The fighting went much shorter, than he was used to, they were already down to four men, when his current opponent knocked away his sword and his guard was down. Then mace came into his view. It had been thrown, it's head bending his opponent's visor, it's handle hitting his helmet uselessly. It gave him the edge he needed to defeat him just in time, to see, that an unarmed Alex was trying to get close enough to a still armed sir Leon, who desperately tried to keep him at a distance. Arthur ran over and reached them just a moment to late. Sir Leon had retreated to the edge of the field and Alex had removed his shield from his arm to bash at him, which made Leon take another step back and thus be eliminated. Alex then turned quickly and threw his shield like a discus at Arthur.  
When they faced each other again, Alex had armed himself with a discarded two-handed sword.  
They circled each other, Arthur taking care to move towards the center of the field. While Alex was no bad fencer, he had shown, that he was most proficient with defensive weaponry and shields.  
Arthur attacked, blocking the expected strike with his shield. Before he could make contact with Alex, their swords clashed. Arthur noticed his opponent's weapon giving way and tried to retreat, when he realized, what was happening slightly to late. Alex' iron grip was on his shield, only one hand holding the sword. While they were close Arthur struck a few times, with his enemy able to deflect with the large weapon just in time. Then Arthur let go of the shield and swung his blade.  
Like he had hoped, Alex had concentrated on the shield, so when he noticed the danger, he dropped his weapon to roll out of danger. They were now a few feet apart again and both looked around to complement their equipment. Arthur now had a center-grip shield and Alex a hatchet.  
They clashed again. With the short weapon, Alex' attacks lacked range but were more dangerous and quicker. He managed to make Arthur retreat for some time, until they again partly disarmed each other again.  
Like that, it went for minutes, with neither gaining a clear advantage. They were now barely distinguishable, because they were covered head to toe in mud.  
“Should we call it a draw?”, the one with two swords asked with Alex' voice.  
“Now that you're close to losing? No way!”, the one with half a shield and hammer answered with Arthur's voice.  
They clashed again and Arthur finally got a notable hit: Alex lost his footing and was down on one knee. The hammer came down, but before it could hit again, it was met by the two swords. Next the two knights were grappling, two brown bodies rolling through the dirt. Their movements slowed, as exhaustion took its toll. They had arrived at the edge of the field, when one had managed to get the other in a stranglehold.  
Then they separated again, one falling back into the field and slowly getting up, the other one had left the field on his feet.  
“We have a winner!”, Uther declared, pointing towards the man on the field.  
The champion wiped some of the mud from his face and Uther had to take care, to not make his disappointment show.


	7. Dealing with it

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have fun

The ceremony, where Uther would give out the prices for the tournament was supposed to start minutes ago and the king was still alone with his son in the throne room pacing up and down, the prince seated at the long table.  
“You lost!”, he finally said.  
As if on cue the door was opened, in came Nemeth's champion. Two guards had tried to prevent him from entering and had grabbed his arms and shoulders and were now dragged after him, like extravagant spaulder-dekorations.  
“My lord, you should hurry. The people want to know, who won!”  
Uther gritted his teeth to hard to talk, so Arthur answered: “Do they need my father to tell them? You did.”  
“That's what I mean. Since you are an honorable man, you follow the rules to the letter, while I was nervously waiting for one of you, to demand a rematch, because I won on a technicality.”  
Uther turned his head rapidly. The thought, that the winner could question his victory had not occurred to him.  
“So you yourself, do not think, you deserve to be champion?”  
“I believe, I could. But when the melee ended I was on my back and Arthur was on his feet. A line in the dirt determined however, that I still won. In a real fight, most would have bet against me at that moment. So naturally most of the people believe, you will pronounce your son as winner, while others argue, that are to strict to do so. I will accept your decision, regardless of what you choose, but you should choose quickly, the spectators are getting restless.”  
With that the knight left again. Uther instructed his son to line up with the other competing knights.

He himself made his way to the tribune. Sorl had been right, the crowd was wildly arguing and he could hear two names being thrown around. It took some time, until they were quiet enough, so he could start to speak: “This tournament was glorious. All of these knights fought with honor and skill. This year we had seven disciplines but only two champions!”  
The crowd went wild again, this time with applause and cheering, and Uther waited again.  
“Everyone at Camelot enjoys hunting!”, again cheering “So with great joy, but little surprise I name my son Arthur Pendragon the champion of archery!” Under loud cheering Arthur stepped forward, to accept his prize, a large golden medallion.  
“A discipline, that is often underestimate is the unarmed combat. But this year, we witnessed, what skill means, through the champion of unarmed combat Alexander Sorl!”  
Alex stepped forward and accepted his medallion. The cheers and applause for Arthur had not really stopped, only abated slightly and now rose again for him.  
Uther had to shout to be heard: “Now we get to the real contests”, he said with a wide smile” The knight's weapon is the sword, so of course, the title of champion of the sword was heavily contested. But one man persevered! Come and accept your prize Arthur!”  
It took some time after Arthur got back in line again, before Uther could continue: “It is one thing, to fight a knight with a sword. It is another thing, to win against any weapon, that could be wielded against you. But that is what the champion of the mixed combat did! Alexander...” The cheers again drowned out his voice.  
“But a knight does not go everywhere on foot. Only someone, that can fight with a horse, can fulfill the duties of a knight. Someone like Arthur...”  
Arthur accepted his third medallion.  
“I of course cannot talk of horses on a tournament, without talking about jousting” He was again interrupted by cheers. He decided not to wait for the crowd to shut up and instead motion for Alex to come.  
Then he demanded silence.  
“With both Arthur and Alexander being champion of three disciplines, that means, I can now award two titles at once: Champion of the melee and champion of the tournament will go to the same person! Now this year the melee was exceptionally exciting. It was fought long, hard and virtuous. And it ended with one man on his back in the ring and one on his feet! Who of you thinks, that the one, still standing deserves the victory?” Loud cheers answered his question.  
“And who thinks, that the one, that managed, to stay in the field has won?” Again loud cheers.  
“Many of you think 'If this had been a real fight, Arthur would have won'. I understand that! And I want to believe that. But there are two things, we cannot forget: we cannot know, what could have been. After all, the melee did not allow for lances, which would have given Alexander an advantage, nor did it allow ranged weaponry, which would have benefited Arthur.  
Secondly: It was not a real fight. It was a competition. And in a competition there are rules. So the champion of the melee and thus the tournament is...” He was again drowned out by cheers and applause. Even if the name could not be heard, it was clear, who had won.  
Alex came forward and first bowed his head to accept the medallion for the melee. Then he held up his hands to accept the laurel wreath for the tournament. Traditionally, the champion was expected to give it to a woman, he loved. For Uther that had meant his wife, when she was still alive and later his ward Morgana. Generally were unmarried knights expected to give it either to a member of the family, like mother or sister, or to someone, they courted, because the ball was then opened by the champion, and whomever they had given it to.  
It was also not uncommon, but not considered proper, to throw the wreath into the crowd, and dance with whoever managed to bring it to the champion.  
This is, what Uther first feared, the Nemethian would do. He thanked all gods he knew, when he saw him awarding it to Morgana, who in turn did her best to put on a smile.

She was still smiling, when she held out her hand, for the knight to lead the first dance. They made a few paces across the dance-hall, when he quietly spoke: “They started dancing, you can stop smiling.”  
“What!?”  
“I am aware, that you are not comfortable right now. When you do not want to smile, you don't have to smile for me. If you want, you can tell me, what's bothering you. If not, I could make small-talk.”  
Her mouth relaxed. “Let's talk then.”  
“If you had been allowed to, would you have entered the tournament and what disciplines?”  
“If it was only against Arthur, I'd definitely compete in sword-fighting, both on foot and on horseback. Also mixed. Definitely not jousting. Maybe archery.”  
“I always liked archery, as well.”  
“Why did you not compete? It's not like you wanted to win. Afraid you'd disgrace yourself?”  
“Not quite, but not far of either. I am a terrible shot!”  
Hearing about something, the knight was bad at, made Morgana grin.  
“You're joking.”  
“No. I first tried to learn it together with Mithian, in secret. We'd sneak out and steal bows and arrows from the armory. I quickly got banned from doing so, after I ruined three bows. I never acquired the patience and precision, to properly aim a bow, So by now Mithian is a much better archer, than I am.”  
Morgana's grin was gone again. While she could buy, that Alex lacked patience to learn archery, she could not accept lacking precision to be an issue for the knight. After all, it had been his superior accuracy, with which he had won all the fights mere minutes ago.  
He noticed her reaction and began leading her to the tables. “I like the festivities. You did well!”  
“I bet it's better, than what you are used to.”  
“It is fancier. Mary's feasts are more … pragmatic.”  
“As pragmatic as adopting the man that saved her life, without letting making him heir.”  
Morgana couldn't tell, what made her say that. Not only did she imply, that he should be payed, for what he had done for his family, but also, that this family had adopted him, to scam him.  
The reaction was immediate. His happy and kind radiance was gone.  
His voice was hard: “I will assume, that you said that, because of whatever is bothering you. I think, you should spend the evening separate from me. If you want to sincerely apologize later, I could accept it.”  
And Morgana sat alone.  
To her dismay not for long. Uther noticed: “Where did he go?”  
“I am tired and I am afraid he noticed. I will go to my room.”

„I'm going to die!“  
“What are you saying?” Gwen had accompanied Morgana to her chambers.  
“I just insulted Alex and queen Mary in the same sentence. That's how the vision comes true.”  
“Don't say that nonsense. I stood right behind you, remember? He might not want to marry you, but he won't kill you for that.”  
“That damn vision!” Morgana shouted in exasperation and everything small in the room, like the candles, a chalice of water on the night-stand, and several vases, fell over, away from her as if she had physically exploded.  
“With my magic, I won't be save in Nemeth, or wherever I'll live then. It's only a matter of time, before I hurt somebody and than I'll be dead...” Morgana trailed off.  
“You look, like you just had an idea, and since your last words before it were 'I'll be dead' I don't like it.”  
“I won't have to marry, if I'm dead!”  
“Morgana, NO!”  
“Calm down, I don't mean actually dead! Just think! Why can't I just run away?”  
“Because all of Camelot would be searching for you.”  
“Unless they thought, I was dead!”  
“But how would you do that?”  
“Over-morrow we will go hunting. I can pretend my horse was bolting. There are enough deadly drops with a river on the bottom. I dump some blood there and they will think, my body was lost to the river.”  
“That's... doable. I can get some pig-blood in a water skin. You'll need a place to go and maybe a map. Maybe, we'll need some supplies in the woods, so you can pick them up later.”  
“I'll talk to Merlin about a that. He can go out with a lot less suspicion than the two of us.”  
“So that's the plan. You'll pretend your horse bolts, fake your death, and then leave Camelot forever?”  
Morgana sighted.  
“Yes. I will miss you.”  
“Everyone here will. You should tell Arthur.”  
“You know, that we can't let him know. He would try to stop me!”  
“You know, that he will blame himself, if you won't let him know at least afterwards.”  
“I can't.”  
“I know you don't want to, but I also know, you'll regret not saying your goodbyes in some form. So if you won't at least leave him a letter, I will tell him myself!”


	8. truth and reconciliation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one got a bit longer than usually, I think.  
> And no, the will be no Chapter "Pillar of autumn"

Merlin had been very helpful and even offered, to create a distraction. He had placed a backpack with food and water, so she could find it, in the forest. She would be forced to leave the horse behind in the woods, because the big body would surely wash up, if it actually fell into the river.  
Gwen had wordlessly shown her a water-skin, which she hung onto her saddle. She had hid Alex' daggers beneath her clothes. A thin piece of leather separated the sharp tips from her skin, so she could move, without piercing herself. She could not take a sword to a hunt, without raising suspicion.

Arthur and Mithian were riding ahead, she and sir Ector were behind them. Then there were Merlin and the servant, that had been assigned to Alex, and lastly Alex himself, who did not really like to hunt, apparently loved the forest. He sat on his horse with his eyes clothed and his head tilted back and a smile on his face.  
So they trotted for some time through the woods, until the fog came.

 

Cara enjoyed riding through the forest. Soft sunlight filtered through the trees, the air smelled fresh and she could easily block out all sounds, relying on her horse, to carry her after the rest of her company. She absentmindedly noticed Arthur and her sister talking about who would hit the boar, that's tracks they were following, Morgana and sir Ector were engaging in uncomfortable small-talk, and Merlin remarking in Gaelic, that bad weather was coming their way.  
Then the warm rays of the sun were going away.  
She opened her eyes and ears and was alarmed. The fog was so dense, that the humans could barely see each other and if the sounds were anything to go by, storm clouds were right ahead, so Arthur decided, that they should make their way back. What the humans in her company did not realized, was, that they were not alone.  
“Ambush!”, Cara tried to warn her companions, but it was not enough, as a band of bandits, six of them on horseback, burst from the bushes.

 

Morgana had planned, to quietly slip away, when the fog came up. She had no idea, what distraction Merlin had planned, but it could not have been better than this weather.  
Then they were attacked, and her horse bolted for real.  
She heard shouting behind her, Alex telling Arthur, to watch over Mithian, and then she quickly had left the fog and could see five pursuers, four of which were bandits. The last one was Alex.  
One of the bandits was catching up to her, so threw one of her daggers. With its rider no longer pushing it to go faster, the horse fell back.  
Morgana turned forward again, desperately trying, to get hers under control again, without slowing down. She was so focused, that she only noticed the other bandit trying to pull her down, when a thrown sword took him out of his saddle. That meant, Alex was now unarmed. With only a dagger, she couldn't really fight on horseback either. Then she had somehow reached the drop, where she had planned to fake falling down and her horse did not stop in time.

Before she hit the water, she was pulled out of the saddle. She couldn't really tell, what was going on, but instead of the water hitting her like a wall, something warm was beneath her, a hand forced her nose and mouth shut, so that when she and her savior reached the bottom of the river about two heartbeats later, no air escaped her body. She did not make contact with the rocks herself, and before she could think about that, she was pulled to the surface.  
“As soon as we are out of the water, you'll have to get out of the wet clothes, or you'll freeze to death.”  
It was Alex. He had one arm slung beneath her armpits, but over her breasts, around her torso and was dragging her through the rapids, like he was dragging a doll through waist-high water.  
As soon as he reached the shore, he started undressing, facing away from her. While she begrudgingly undressed herself down to her undergarments, she noticed a few things: his clothes were torn. The only thing, she could imagine doing that, was the impact on the ground of the river he had shielded her from. And yet he moved completely unbothered. It was made even stranger by the wound-dressing that engulfed his entire chest. She thought, that it could be a wound from the tournament, but if it required dressing, the fall must have broken his ribs.  
The third thing was minor: he had her dagger, the one she had thrown at the first bandit.  
Without turning he held his hand to her.  
“What?”  
“Do you want to carry your clothes yourself?”  
She gave him her dress, the pants and the shirt she had worn underneath. He wrung gallons of water out of it before slinging it together with his own over his shoulders and started walking.

Morgana followed him wordlessly for a few minutes. Her entire body had quickly started feeling like an icicle, her feet hurt and even if he had shielded her from most of it, she still hurt from the fall.  
“Where are we going?”  
“We need to get to shelter. Ideally a village, but a small cave would do. There we can make fire to warm ourselves up, dry our clothes and rest for the night. The way back is the easy part.”  
“And do you have any idea, how to find a cave, or are we just aimlessly walking in one direction.”  
“We are in the territory of a bear. I'm following its traces. We're about one hour on foot away from its cave.”  
Morgana decided not to question, whether he thought he could kill a bear with just that dagger and remained quiet, until the silence was disturbed again, this time by him.  
He stood still and said: “Your to slow. Climb on my back.”  
“What?”  
“I won't just leave you behind and you're to heavy for me to carry you in my arms while running. Climb on my back.”  
He arranged the clothes he was carrying, so she could easily hold onto them, while piggy-back riding him. He held her legs firmly in place with his arms and before she could handle her feelings of nostalgia about all the times she had been carried like this by Arthur and Uther as a child, he took of. The air felt like a blizzard and she pressed herself at his back as cover from the back and firmly closed her eyes.  
His body radiated enough warmth to keep even her legs, which were fully exposed, from getting frostbitten. The ride ended far to quick for her liking, though she would never admit that.  
He set her down, looked into her eyes and whispered, pointing at the promised cave: “We're lucky, the bear is asleep. Do you still have the other dagger?”  
She nodded. Separated from him, the air felt much colder.  
“Can you lend it to me please? I can throw one at the bear, but that won't kill it and I feel much more self confident, when I'm armed.”  
She gave it to him. She wasn't in any condition to fight with it, much less against a bear.  
Alex was incredibly light on his feet, his steps not making any sound. Only when he started aiming the first dagger, she could make out the bear. Until then she had just believed him, when he said, that it was there. It was a large dark brown mass in the darkness of the cave. If it slept so close to the entrance, it could only mean, that the cave wasn't much bigger, than the beast itself.  
Alex' arm shoot forward and the sound of pierced bone told them, that it had hit its mark. Like he had guessed, it only made the bear angry. It stormed towards him, the handle protruding from its skull like a silvery horn. Alex ran at it, his arms held high, to goad it to stand on its hind legs. It did and he stabbed it thrice in the heart before it could drop back down. He slipped between its legs and jumped on its back from behind. While the animal tried to shake its attacker of he used the dagger like an ice pick and grabbed the one, that had been lodged into its skull.

That bear had defended its territory for almost two decades against other bears, gangs of bandits and hunters, packs of hungry wolves and swarms of serkets and Alex had killed it in less than a minute, with nothing but two daggers, barely long enough to injure its heart. After he had just shielded her from a twelve yard drop into a coursing river and carried her over multiple miles.  
He just started collecting loose sticks and twigs, like it was nothing. She caught herself and started clearing out the cave and lay out stones so they could safely start a fire. She tried her hardest, not to think about the fact, that they had nothing to start a fire with, that she would freeze to death here. And even if Alex somehow got the fire going, he would bring her back to Camelot, where she could not live. And most of all she tried not to blame him for any of this and remember, that he did the best he possibly could, to ensure her well-being. But she failed.  
“We have nothing to start a fire with, idiot! Everything is wet.”  
He did not answer immediately. Instead he beat a stone at the rock-walls of the cave rapidly. Then he gave it to her. It now had a sharp edge. “Start skinning the bear. The pelt is warm, we'll have something to eat, and the task keeps your muscles working.”  
“And the fire?”  
He held up another stone and on of her daggers as if it was an answer: “Let me worry about it.”  
He struck the dagger with the stone, and actually managed to produce sparks, which naturally had no effect on the wet twigs and leaves they had instead of tinder.  
“I told you so.”  
“Maybe it would work better, if you wouldn't try to strangle every spark of warmth, with your glaring.”  
“So finally you have some actual feelings! And here I thought you were stuck in your act.”  
“Why are you afraid of me? It's rolled over into hate by now, but that doesn't mean I understand it any better.”  
“Why would I be afraid of you? Your strength? Please, I know dozens of people, that have to be reminded, what the word 'heavy' means! Your speed? What's special about a man, that can kill a bear with a glorified needle? Or maybe, that you could easily beat every single knight on the tournament, but decided not to, to make Arthur look better? Or maybe because I have no idea what you plan to do with me? What even are you?”  
Neither of them noticed the air around them had become gradually drier, to the point they were no longer wet.  
“Why would you even think, that I have any plans with you? After what you said after the tournament, I can't wait to get back home and not see you again for a long time! I saved you, because I like to think, that everyone has a good side, until proven otherwise, even if you tried your best to hide yours from me!”  
“Oh, you have no plans for me and can't wait to return home? It would be easier to believe, if you weren't trying to buy me from Uther! You could at least have the decency to be honest about it!”  
The wood was now dry.  
“What are you talking about, I'm only here as company for my sister during some treaty negotiations...”  
Alex had slowed, something going through his mind, but Morgana did not want to stop shouting: “I'M TALKING ABOUT THE MARRIAGE, ASSHOLE!”  
The air was full of energy, igniting the woods in a blazing flame.  
Morgana was outside the cave, an icy blast had put out the fire. Alex held her.  
For a few moments neither of them moved or spoke.  
Then Morgana broke the silence: “You have magic yourself...”  
He let go of her and murmured: “might as well.”  
Than he turned into a blur. The dust and small stones left the cave, Alex stared briefly at the firewood, beams of light coming from his eyes, and it was burning again, suddenly the bear was skinned, two slabs of meat impaled on sticks were stuck over the fire, the pelt was parted into two, one as a mattress, the other as a blanket, some trees fell over and turned into a drying-rack, from which their clothes now hang, the remaining wood turned into either more firewood or a door for the cave.  
Then Alex rematerialized in front of her. It had taken only a few heartbeats.  
“What kind of magic is that?”  
“Not the same kind, you just used. That was you right?”  
Everything made more and less sense at the same time.  
“Yes.”  
It seemed He was piecing things together, so she wanted him, to speak his mind.  
“So you were afraid, you'd be killed for your magic in Camelot. And you were afraid, you wouldn't be able to hide it from me, if we married and you feared, I would kill you as well.”  
She wanted to confirm his theory, but he interrupted her: “Wait, you were afraid of me, when we first met! Mithian could only have started the negotiations, when she came there, and I arrived before her. You were afraid of me, before we met?”  
“Yes.”  
“How? Why?”  
“I had a vision. Years ago. The only thing I remembered were your face, and that you beat me to pieces. But now I started to remember more bits and it makes less and less sense.”  
“I will not attack you. How about we sit down by the fire, I tell you my story, and you tell me yours?”  
And so they did.  
“You are a fae?”  
“Not really. But you are not the first one, to mistake me for one. The fae are magical creatures. Their magic has more similarities to yours, than to my abilities. They exist on a different plane, I am merely from far far away. I am quite lucky, that Kryptonians look pretty much the same as Europeans. I have no way of disguising my species, besides acting weak.”  
“Your species?”  
“Weren't you listening? I'm not human.”  
“No, I mean, you just said it so specifically, like you disguise everything else.”  
“Considering how much you picked about me, I'm almost surprised, you didn't figure that out, too. I am not male. These bindings,” she pointed at her chest,” are to hide my breast. I normally have vest, but I ripped it during the melee.”  
Morgana stared for a few seconds at Cara.  
“That's your story? You came from so far away, that you have god-like power under the sun, saved the royal family, while looking for a place to stay, they adopted you, you pretended to be a boy, so you could be a knight, and now you adoptive sister is arranging, to marry you to me, despite the fact, that we're both women?”  
“Pretty much. Though, that we're both women is not as much of a problem, as you might think.”  
“Please don't say anything along the lines, that I could just get pregnant from a lover!”  
“I meant, that Kryptonians have not reproduced sexually for generations. We have ways, to create a child out of the sample of any two people. Among our people sex was only to show affection. I have all I'd need to create child from our [genetic code] here on earth.”  
“Wait! Firstly, what's [genetic code]?”  
“Sorry, you have no word for it. Simply said, it's the building plan for a living being.”  
“Okay, second: don't you think it'd be more suspicious, if we went away for some time and then just showed up with a child, than, if we never had children.”  
Cara stared a little. Apparently she had never thought about that.  
“Implanting the fetus into your uterus is comparatively easy. But that would mean, you'd have to suffer all the disadvantages of a natural pregnancy and birth.”  
“Millions of women before me did, and millions will after me. Besides, wouldn't the child be like you? I won't have to worry miscarriage or sickness?”  
“Birth is still dangerous! Just because it's nature, it's not good. That bear was nature, too!”

When they were finished with that, it was Morgana's turn.  
“It started about twelve years ago.”  
Cara made a quiet “huh”, Morgana noticed.  
“What?”  
“I came to earth twelve years ago. Do you think it's a coincidence?”  
“Surely not. It started with a vision of you. What I remembered, when I first met you was, that in that vision, you attacked me.”  
“And you remember more now?”  
“Yes. Most importantly: It wasn't me!”  
“What. Had visions before and after that, but had always a weird perspective. I just kind of saw things. But this time I had the body of a woman. About the age I am now. And I was not alone. I was with a man named Mordred. If it's the Mordred I know, we still have a few years. We were arrested. I don't remember why, but it was not serious. Then I was attacked by you. You were not nearly as gentle as you were to that bear.”  
“Maybe it only looked like that.”  
“Violence is relative. That tackle would have killed everything I've ever seen, but didn't bother dream-me. We talked and you decided, the best course of action would be, to break all of dream-me's limbs.”  
“I can't imagine any reason, why I would do that.”  
“Dream-me said, it came from a place called the 'phantom-zone'.”  
Cara's face hardened.  
“If that was true, we'll have to prepare. The phantom-zone was by Krypton as prison. It's a place, where time stands still. It is neigh impossible to leave, but if Fort Rozz ever left, the galaxies worst villain's would be free.”  
“I think what's more important is, what happened next: I showed up. I looked about twenty years older, than I am now, so as a child I did not recognize myself. I used magic. I think I healed dream-me.”  
“So future you has a reason to believe, an escapee from the phantom-zone should be spared.”  
“Tell me, what does Kryptonian clothing look like?”  
“Kryptonians mostly wear two kinds of clothing: for ceremonial purposes robes similar to those on earth, aside from the material of course. For everything else, we'd wear suits which are either are, or look like they were weaved as one piece. Why do you want to know?”  
“Then dream-me did not wear Kryptonian clothes. The symbol must have been just a stylized 'S'.”  
Cara perked up. He grabbed a stick from the fire and drew something on the ground.  
“Like this?”  
“I think. Dream-me wore it on her chest, so I didn't get to see it to much. What is it?”  
Cara laughed: “That's the sigil of my family! I can't believe, you didn't notice!”  
“So dream-me pledged allegiance to your family.”  
“But why would someone, that has been thrown into the phantom-zone do that. She most likely ended up there, because my mother gave her the sentence. Unless you remember more, we won't find out, what was going on.”  
By now they had finished eating.

“Did you have any more visions since then?”  
“Yes, but none about you. At least I have this, otherwise I could not sleep.”  
“Where did you get it from? Merlin?”  
“What? No! He's a good friend and I wouldn't be surprised, if he still knew where to find druids, but he is no wizard.”  
Cara smiled, but conceded, “You know him better,” when Morgana looked at her.  
“I got it from a witch, that visited Camelot.” Cara perked up again.  
“She did not use magic, while she was here, but I'll be damned if she was not one. I don't know why, but she gifted me this bracelet and ever since the visions were gone.”  
“But do you know her intentions?”  
“Why do they matter?”  
“From a human perspective Kryptonian technology is comparable to magic. If I had something, that I knew would be worn at least once a day in Uther's presence, I could do a lot of harm. I could spy on everything that happens around you! I could use it to unleash a deadly plague, whenever I wanted. I could use it, to give Arthur and Uther an incurable sickness, that will kill them, so you would inherit the throne.  
For all you know, the bracelet could make you act on the witches behalf, without knowing!”  
“Are you sure, you want to advocate distrust?”  
“All I'm saying, without a magic expert to analyze it, you have no of knowing, what it can do and how it works, so I'd suggest wearing it as little as possible, to avoid side effects.”  
“You mean like, maybe even if it was well intentioned, it could have a bad effect, if I wore it, without needing it, like Gaius' medicines?”  
“Yes!”  
“That's not what you said before, but it's a good point none the less.”  
With that she took the bracelet of.

“Do I understand it right, that my sister and sir Ector are negotiating our marriage with your father?”  
“And your telling me, that you did not know? Than why were you so nice to me?”  
“I just was? That's who I am.”  
“The daggers? The laurel-wreath?”  
“I thought you had more use for them, than me, and Mithian told me, not to give it to her.”  
“You are something else!”  
“So what do we do with that knowledge?”  
“Well, I initially planned to fake my death, but at least Mithian will ask questions, when you return without me.”  
“I think she would catch on quick enough and not bust you. The question is: do you really want to?”  
“What choice do I have? If I return, we'll get married...”  
“And I would take you to Nemeth or the Isle of Mara, where you could safely.”  
“That does sound better. Can we talk about that tomorrow?”  
“Of course.”  
Morgana laid down on the half of the bear pelt and sat down against the cave walls.  
“When are you planning on waking me, for the second watch?”  
“We won't need to keep watch.”  
“Then you're sleeping here.”  
“But”  
“Are you going to rape me, while I sleep?”  
“No”  
“Do we have to fear someone walking in on us?”  
“No”  
“Then you can sleep in the closest thing we have to a bed.”  
Cara laid down, but made a point of keeping respectful distance.  
Then they covered themselves with the other half of the bear pelt as blanket and Morgana fell asleep.


	9. Returning

Supergirl woke in a room with stone-walls, in a bed. Next to her sat Sara Lance. She moved to sit up and saw a young woman in a blue robe standing by the door, but Sara stopped her: “Slowly. You got hit quite hard. Do you know, who I am?”  
“You are the captain of the wave-rider. Before that you were an assassin. You died multiple times, came back from the dead once and are second place only to Eobard Thawne in getting erased from the time-line.”  
“You do remember me. Do you know where you are?”  
“I'm not sure. I followed a suspicious guy through National City, he notices me, the next thing I know, he throw fire-balls at me. I try to arrest him and suddenly I'm here.”  
“Do you know, where 'here' is?”  
“I think, that I involuntarily traveled through time. And since you are here, I must be on Earth 1. I'm guessing twelfth century England.”  
Sara turned around to the woman in blue and said: “She is okay.” The woman nodded and silently left the room.  
“Okay. I'll have to tell you something. You are not on Earth-1. You are on Earth-4007. I am not the Sara Lance you know, though we seem to have a lot in common. One important difference is, that I met Kara Zor-El anno dominum 492.”  
The door opened and two women entered. One wore dark, comfortable robes, that went well with her black, graying hair, in which she wore a golden circlet. Her face was almost identical to Lena Luthor, albeit noticeably older.  
The other one had short blonde hair and wore armor. And was the spitting image of Supergirl.  
“I should apologize.”  
The Lena Luthor doppelganger was holding back laughter.  
“You remember EVERYTHING, but forget, that you yourself are coming for a visit.”  
“You knew I was coming?”  
“Since about 12 years, though technically since 24 years, because then I had the first vision.”  
“Vision? Are you a witch in this world?”  
“Am I not in yours? How does your Morgana protect you?”  
“Protect me? I am Supergirl! I am earth's champion! I am the one protecting the humans. While Lena sure helps me from time to time and is a great friend...”  
“You do know, that protection can go both ways, right?” the armored Kryptonian cut in, “you don't have to fight alone. 'Stronger together'.”  
“Now, if this Lena really is my version of your world, she would not let herself be sidelined, just because she could die. I am curious, what does she do?”  
“Lena is a scientist. She is the smartest woman I know. Now that I think about it, it was she, who repelled the Daxamite invasion!”

They talked for some time and exchanged a few of their stories. Morgana was apparently trying to learn quantum-mechanics from the archives in the fortress of solitude. It went really well with her magic, as she demonstrated by showing of her literal pocket-dimension; A worm-hole in an enchanted purse.  
In this world, the Daxamites had never invaded. When Mon-El had landed, Kara had opted for throwing him right back into space, but the entire rest of the round table took pity on him and allowed him to stay on earth. He tried to flirt with Kara once.  
After his arm had healed, he still needed to be beaten by Sir Gawain with an ordinary sword, before he learned humility. When his parents came to pick him up, he had learned and matured greatly, and refused to be a figurehead, because he had never done anything for Daxam to deserve admiration. His father was moved to tears and instructed some technicians, Mon-El's pod could make it to Daxam, if he ever wished to return.  
Rhea killed her husband. She did not even wait, to leave earth. So Mon-El challenged her for the throne. Having trained among earth's greatest fighters and with his enhanced powers for some time, he beat her easily and his first royal decree, was to establish the first Daxam constitution. And so the Daxamites left earth not one week later.  
Fort Rozz was still safely in the Phantom-zone. When Supergirl brought up Reign, Morgana woke up.

In her sleep Morgana had started nestling herself to Cara. So now she opened her eyes and found herself clinging to her knight, their legs intertwined, her head resting on her chest and arms holding onto Cara's torso. When she lifted her head, she saw Cara's head lying on the floor with her eyes closed. She could easily tell, that she was only pretending to be asleep.  
“You could have gotten up, if you wanted to.”  
“I did not want to wake you. You said, that you always had trouble sleeping.”  
“I had another vision.”  
“Your bracelet! I forgot, that you need it to sleep!”  
Cara got up and whizzed through the cave, looking for Morgana's bracelet and putting on her now dry clothes.  
“It was alright. I found out, what my first vision from you was about.”  
Cara stopped. She made a soft “oh” and urged her wordlessly to continue. Morgana grinned.  
“What is 'Quantum-physics'?”

Morgana gave Cara only a short version. After all, she greatly enjoyed being ahead.

“You saw the horse. No way she survived this”, sir Leon lamented. Arthur wanted to berate him but Mithian spoke up first.  
“My brother won against more dangerous things, than a river.”  
“What?”, both sir Leon and Arthur were taken off guard by Mithian, acting as if Alex had beaten up a storm.  
“He does not fail. He said, he would protect Morgana, so I know Morgana is safe. My guess is, that because the have no horse, they are still finding their way back.”  
“I got to experience your brother's competence firsthand, but not even he can stand against forces of nature.”  
“You might want to get back about that.”  
Between the trees Alex and Morgana came walking towards them.

Morgana was in her bath and felt great. To prevent hard to answer questions Cara had refused to just carry her back to Camelot but instead they had to march some way through the forest, to be found by Arthur.  
“I am so glad, you survived!”  
“Thanks to Cara.” Morgana smiled at the memory of waking up in his arms.  
“The thought of him doesn't seem to bother you any more,” Gwen observed.  
Morgana smiled and stared of dreaming: “It turned out, that my perception of this knight was wrong.”  
Gwen was perplexed, that she didn't just say 'he', but didn't dwell on it.  
“So he's not an unstoppable murder-beast?”  
“Oh no! More, than I could have ever imagined. That creature is the deadliest being, that has ever seen our sun.” Morgana was now grinning.  
“Then what changed?”  
“First of all, I learned, that if anybody found out about the true extend of Cara's power, she would be constantly accused of witchcraft herself.”  
“So he was born with mag … did you just say she?”  
“Second, Cara is neither human, nor a man.” Morgana was laughing now.  
Gwen stood there with her mouth open.  
“You're mocking me!”  
“The funny thing is, I'm not making any of it up!”  
“So what? You found out, that the man, that gave you nightmares is actually a female nightmarish monster?”  
“Pretty much. Look!” Morgana held up her right arm.  
It took Gwen a while, to notice, what Morgana was getting at. Ever since she got it, she always kept her bracelet close, so she could wear it, when she slept. They had never talked about it, but Gwen had noticed, that it helped Morgana with her night terrors, better even than Gaius' sleeping drought. When she had prepared herself, to run away, she decided to wear it, so it wouldn't occupy to much space in her bag.  
She wasn't wearing it, in fact, Gwen couldn't tell, where it was at all. Morgana looked well rested. Aside from the obvious dirt and smell, nothing gave away, that she did not spend her night in a comfortable bed.  
“Where is your bracelet?”  
“I don't think, I need it anymore. Last night I had a vision, that answered more questions, than it raised. It showed, that I will learn to control my powers! It showed us as duke and duchess of a safe land. It showed, that I will use my visions, to prepare for the future!”  
“You just trust your dreams like this? How do you know, that anything of what you saw, will come true?”  
“Normally, I would say, that I just know, but this one told me things about Cara, that she had not told me, things she probably didn't even tell Mithian about, because it would never come up.”

Arthur wanted to talk with Merlin about the letter, Morgana had left him. When he first read it, he was worried to much about her live to really think about it.  
But when he wanted to confront him about it's contents, something unexpected. Out of a corridor, that he believed, ended with a window, came Alex Sorl, grabbed Merlin and was gone, before Arthur could even protest.

Merlin mentally prepared himself to answer to Arthur, when suddenly the world flew away. It took him a moment, to realize, that he was pulled away by his lapels. It took him another moment to see, that it was Alex, and that he was transported to a special part of the dungeon.  
Just when he got enough of a hold of himself, to protest, he was held up in front of Kilgarrah.  
“Explain yourself! And better do so well!”  
“How about you explain, why I shouldn't burn you to crisp?”, the dragon asked laughing.  
“Because if you try, I will ram him so hard up your nostrils, that you will no longer be bound by your chains.”  
His eyes were glowing red and his feet were not touching the ground.  
Merlin tried to calm both of them down.  
“What exactly do you want to know? How about, you tell us, how you even know about Kilgarrah and we answer your questions?”  
He set Merlin down, but didn't let him go.  
“I can see through rock. I discovered the dragon, when I was trying to learn the layout of the castle. Then after Arthur and I got to learn about each other in the tavern, I noticed, that you interrogated him and reported to the dragon.”  
“How did you eavesdrop on Arthur and me? You were outside the room and I had watched you go away.”  
“That's another question. I will start with an easy question: when we were hunting, you said something. My Gaelic is not the best, so I assumed, you were commenting on the weather, some kind of country saying. Considering how quickly the fog and the storm came, I change my bet to either, you are a wizard, or you signaled a wizard.”  
“Yes.”  
“Merlin!”  
“There is no point in lying at this point. I am a wizard. I intended it to be a distraction, but then the bandits came. I thought I killed Morgana.”  
“The bandits are my fault. Had I paid attention, I would have noticed them, before you called the storm.”  
Kilgarrah had the next question: “What are you?”  
“I am a Kryptonian, a refugee on earth. My mother was a judge, my aunt a general, protecting the innocent is my legacy. Why are you so dishonest to Morgana?”  
It was obvious, that he did not trust the dragon.  
“The prophecy is clear: She will bring death and destruction to Camelot and Arthur.”  
“Really? A prophecy? Are you illiterate?”  
The dragon was taken aback by the accusation.  
“There are thousands of stories about people fulfilling their destiny attempting to avoid it. Have you ever thought, that she could become an enemy of the entirety of Camelot, because even those she trusted with her most dangerous secrets, did not trust her and conspired against her. I have never heard about a prophecy, that was more than a prank of a cruel god. Most of them only come true, because the people try to stop them. All you can do is prepare for when it comes true.”  
“So you expect us, to just trust your judgment? I have not forgotten your threats. I do not fear you. Mundane means cannot penetrate my scales.”  
“Then you are invulnerable, while chained in a dungeon. I can still make your prison smaller. Please tell me, there is a good reason, why you don't try and teach her, how to keep her powers in check. She told me, she once set her room on fire.”  
“I tried that. I smuggled her out of Camelot, so she could be trained by the druids, but Arthur found their camp and thought, they had kidnapped her. Mordred was there.”  
“I heard that name before. Who is he?”  
“He is a druid, who according to prophecy would kill Arthur.”  
“Maybe, because he only knows him as someone that kills druids? Guess it takes strength to hold out your hand in friendship.”  
“Enough. Why are you here?”  
“I want, that Morgana receives the training she needs. If you will not give it to her herself, give me a magic book. I am sure, Gaius has more, than the one he gave you, if not I can copy the relevant pages.”  
“How do you know, that Gaius gave it to me?”  
Alex just gave him a look.  
“Which will it be?”  
“I don't really have choice, do I? If you haven't told Morgana already, you will, before I meet her the next time.”  
“I will do no such thing. It is your secret. If you still think, that your current course is the best, than go ahead and keep on lying. I will just claim I had the pages from the royal library in Nemeth.”  
“Please do that. Though it will take some time, to make a copy of the book. What will we do in the meantime?”  
Alex said: “Wait.”  
In the time it had taken him to say that, he had brought them into Gaius' room, had placed the magic book on the table and vanished again.  
A moment later he was back with a stack of empty parchments. He stood in front of the table, his arm a blur, filling the paper with letters, faster than Merlin's copy-spell had been able to.  
When he was done copying, he bound the pages together with a string, so, while not as durable as an actual book, Morgana could still read it like one.  
Then both, the original and the copy vanished and Alex walked in a brisk human speed towards the door.  
“You can tell Morgana, I told you to get it to her, so it would be more subtle. Right now you better think well, what you tell Arthur.”  
He opened the door, they turned the corner and there he was.  
“Why did you take him?”  
“Probably the same reason, you wanted to talk to him.”  
“I am not sure about that.”  
“She told me about the letter.”  
“Did she tell you, what it said.”  
“There was no need, I found out, without her wanting to.”  
Alex lead both Arthur and Merlin back into Gaius' room.  
Arthur opened his mouth, and it was evident, that there was to much that he wanted to get out, for him to speak a word.  
So Alex broke the awkward silence: “Morgana was born with magic. She feared for her live, so she wanted to fake her death and run away. Merlin wanted to help her.”  
Arthur just nodded.  
Merlin wanted to say something, but Arthur glared at him.  
He finally spoke: “Since when did you know?”  
“Do you remember, when you brought her back from those druids?”  
“I thought they had kidnapped her. She wanted them to train her, didn't she?”  
“I was the one, who had the idea.”  
“I assume, Gaius knows as well.”  
“How do you know?”  
“He was the court-wizard before the purge and you spend most of your time with him. The one reason, you can hide anything from me, is because you claim to be doing something for him. I assume, that anytime, I couldn't find you, you had to do something magic related.”  
“No, Gaius doesn't practice magic!”  
“Keep your voice down. Of course, it had nothing to do with magic, when Uther slew Tristan de Bois' undead corpse with the sword you had brought. I know, that Gaius would not use magic carelessly, and never when it could cause harm. But all I can do, is never to look to closely.  
That's not, what I want to talk about.”  
“Morgana.”  
“Morgana.” He turned to Alex.  
“Why is she back here?”  
“She told me, that Mithian and your father were negotiating our marriage. We came to the conclusion, that the best solution, was to actually marry and leave Camelot, until she can control herself. It has the advantage, that she could still see her friends, while Uther is still alive.”  
Arthur nodded solemnly.  
“I agree. Thank you!”  
“No need. I am merely following the path my sister is preparing.”  
“I'm not talking about the marriage. You saw, that Morgana was in danger and without hesitation, you went to protect her. I wish, I could say, I would have done the same, for Mithian, but four armed men are even dangerous for me. Not to mention, that you jumped into a coursing river for her!”  
Alex laid his hand on his shoulder.  
“It's okay. All that matters is, she's back, she's save and I will marry her.”  
Arthur hugged him.  
“You have my gratitude none the less. But don't expect to get away this easily from Uther. He will want to thank you as well.”

“You requested my presence, your majesty?”  
“Lord Alexander! Me and all of Camelot owe you our gratitude! You have safely returned lady Morgana to us.”  
“There is no need to thank me. Every single one of your men would have done the same in my position.”  
“You humble yourself, but do so falsely. My own son was there and he did not to chose to protect her.”  
“There was no choice. He was to far away, to protect lady Morgana, I was to far away, to protect my sister. So we each did, what we could. I already talked to Arthur. We are even.”  
Morgana and Arthur inhaled sharply. What Alex had just said, was open as possible rejecting Uther's thanks. While the two of them were, for different reasons, aware, that the nemethian considered his actions as natural, Uther did not.  
“Modesty is a virtue. In moderation. I thought long, how I could thank you. If you were one of my men, I would award you land and a title, but you are not. Than it came to me: you are not king Rodor's son.”  
Everybody in the room tensed up. Uther ignored the clenched fists of the man he was talking to.  
“I will give you a name befitting your standing. From now on you shall be known”  
“No.”  
“WHAT?”  
“I can not accept this. I already have a name. I am Alexander Zor-El.”  
“That is not an Albion name.”  
“It is the name of my birth-family. I may have lost them long before meeting my new one, but they are the reason, I am, who I am. You can thank sir Zor-El, or you accept your daughter's safety without thanking anyone.”  
Alex had become more and more agitated and now Morgana was pointing at her eyes. Cara's eyes had started to get a slight glow. It still was deniable and passed as an intense stare, but it was noticeably none the less.  
The guards hesitantly reacted to the fact, that the knight had taken several steps forward. Even though he was not currently armed, they still had the memories of the tournament in their heads.  
Uther managed, to not let his anger out. The more he knew about this knight, the more he wanted him to marry Morgana. He seemed to actually love her. He was a better, than he himself in his best days had been. But for some reason the boy seemed to like every single person in Camelot more than him. It bothered him so much, that he didn't notice, that he had referred to Morgana as his daughter.  
“If I cannot thank you, for saving my ward, how about I congratulate you for saving your bride to be?”  
“Your majesty?”  
“You are right, I cannot give you land or a title right now, because you have no formal connection to Camelot and you cannot accept a name or anything of the like, without denying yourself. But you are set to marry lady Morgana and if I want to do something good for her husband, by giving him a big dowry, that is my decision.”

With that, Mithian's demands were fulfilled. She was angry, that Uther tried to sell it as a gift, but her brother had asked her, to lead the marriage-negotiations to a quick end. He had not yet talked with her about the marriage itself. She assumed, she would have to answer for her secrecy, when the audience was over.  
She had assumed correctly. Like so often, he forgave her quickly, for acting behind his back, but in his interest. She could tell, that he had taken a liking to Morgana, but it was not the reason, he wanted to marry her as quickly as possible. Cara might be nigh incapable of lying, but was adamant about keeping a certain secret.

Arthur waited in Morgana's room, the letter she had written him in his hands.  
“Gwen, could you just...”  
“She knows, about the contents of this letter?”  
“Yes.”  
“Than you don't have to send her away.”  
Gwen awkwardly closed the door in front of her.  
“So you have magic.”  
“Yes.”  
“The law says, that I have to report you.”  
“But we are talking to each other. You already thought about this.”  
“Is this true?”, he pointed on a line in her letter.  
“You were born with magic, never wanted it?”  
“Yes. Like every child Uther had burned on a stake, or drowned in a lake, or beheaded, when they were lucky.”  
“I understand now, why you are so against Uther's war on magic. But I do not understand, why I only ever encounter magic doing evil.”  
“Magic does as much evil as your arm. If you can control it, it is the decision of its wielder, whether it does harm or not. Maybe if you were no crusader against the innocent, you'd meet a magic user, that doesn't want revenge!”  
“I don't want to kill innocent people. Right now I am dealing, that I murdered people, that just tried to help you, because I thought they kidnapped you. I am happy for every accused magician, that escaped me.  
But what can I do? I can no longer follow Uther's orders in good conscience but I cannot defy my king either.”  
Morgana hugged him.  
“He won't live forever and then you will be a better king.”  
“But what am I supposed to do in the meantime?”  
Morgana let go of him.  
“For now, it should be easy, to make him focus on the marriage.”  
He sighted and slumped his shoulders.  
“I spoke to Merlin and Alex. They already knew about your magic, and I guess so does Gaius.”  
“Yes, Merlin was the first one, I told.”  
“What about Alex? I did not want to ask him.”  
“I was angry at him and ignited wet wood, when I screamed at him.”  
“You would have frozen to death, if it wasn't for your magic? Now that's irony.”  
“I was in no danger, Cara was protecting me.”  
“Your the second person, that talks, like he could kill forces of nature.”  
“Who knows, maybe, if he'd stop holding back for once, he could.”  
Before either Gwen or Arthur could react, Morgana was out the door.  
While she had spoken, she had grabbed the papers about magic, Merlin had brought her.  
Gwen and Arthur both turned red.  
“Did she speak to you, about what happened?”  
“Everything she told me sounds unbelievable.”  
“Please.”  
“Morgana threw one of the daggers, Cara had gifted her at one of the bandits, he threw his sword at another one.”  
“We found their bodies. The other two looked, like they were hit by a trebuchet.”  
“It gets better. When she went over the cliff, he jumped after her, pulled her out of her saddle and shielded her from the impact on the water. Then he pulled her to land, carried her to a bear-cave and killed the bear in the cave with the nothing but those two daggers.”  
Gwen had been right. It sounded unbelievable, but he remembered, when he had picked Morgana up. She had a distinct smell on herself. The smell of a dead animal. With their clothes wet from the river, they must have used pelt to keep themselves warm. Catching a deer on foot, was a herculean feat. Wolves fought in packs and were deadly for any small group. Even if it had not been a bear, the idea, that he killed a wild animal with just two daggers, was frightening.  
“What was that book? Do you know, where she's going?”  
“Merlin said, it's a compendium of Gaius' old notes, from before the great purge. If you ask me...”  
Gwen leaned over clandestinely, even though they were alone, and the door was closed.  
“Alex gave it to Merlin.”  
“You think, Alex has magic as well?”  
Arthur thought about it. It would answer some things.  
“She phrased it, like he doesn't, but she didn't outright deny it.”  
“We should talk with Merlin and Gaius about this. It wouldn't be the first time, a magic user infiltrated Camelot with bad intentions.”  
“What are you talking about? Why do you think, Cara has bad intentions?”  
“Do you remember Edwin Muirden? We thought, he was just a healer, with methods, Gaius had not heard of, but it turned out, that he wanted to get revenge on him and Uther, because they killed his parents during the purge.  
Or Morgause? I didn't question at the time, why she showed me this vision of my mother, but by now, I am aware, that she did so, hoping I would challenge Uther to a duel.  
I would be foolish, to blindly trust someone as extraordinary as him.”  
“He didn't even want to come here, and until yesterday, he didn't even know about the marriage either! What could he possibly be planning?”  
“I'm not saying, he does have a sinister plan, just that we shouldn't just trust him.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To be clear: Cara's cover is to pretend, she's only Batman-strong instead of kryptonian-strong


End file.
